Comments on: Humble Boy

By: Mark McCallister

Mark McCallister — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:13:13 +0000

I concur with the director’s comment that the play is more than a variant of Hamlet. The theme that I distilled from the play was how we keep loving people – sometimes more deeply than we can possibly explain – despite their dysfunctions and imperfections. This notion is worthy of at least a couple of weeks of introspection. What more can one ask from a performance? And to this end, 1st Stage is the best arts and entertainment value I have come across in years – please go. And Lee Mikeska Gardner’s liner note alone was worth the price of admission, commenting openly on a cycle of life we often refrain from speaking honestly over — that of death.

By: Lee Mikeska

Lee Mikeska — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:35:14 +0000

I appreciate very much the positive comments in this review and Tim’s appreciation of some of the great things in the production. I do, however, think that the play is so much more than a revisionist Hamlet. While there are allusions right and left to that incomparable play, Humble Boy is it’s own animal. Science and faith battle each other, unhappy and not always likable people – but so identifiable – confront each other, ridiculous comedy and universal pain sit side by side. If you’re waiting for a punch line, the play might seem slow to start. If you allow in the complex themes Charlotte Jones is setting up, it won’t take long to get sucked in and the payoff is worth it. And yes, the set is pretty cool. It takes you to a different world and it was built with love by a lot of people. Tim is so right when he says “real art is about love.”

By: Amy Greenman

Amy Greenman — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:54:28 +0000

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Mercy / Martha Karl at the Oscars one day.