Book Review: hir by Taylor Mac

Title: Hir

Author: Taylor Mac

Genre: LGBT+ Plays

Number of Pages: 104

Rating: D

Recommended?: No

I was so disappointed by this play. It sounded good from the description but I disliked it so much that I found it really hard to get through. If it hadn’t been so short I probably wouldn’t have finished it at all. Hir tells the story of a grotesquely dysfunctional family and the upheaval they experience after the son comes home with dishonorable discharge. Isaac has a drug problem and he comes back to find his stroke-afflicted father freakishly emasculated by his mother and his transgender brother undergoing hormone therapy.

Isaac’s mom is a certified nut- considering the things she’s been through (including the abuse she was subjected to by her husband) you would think I could muster up a little bit of sympathy for her but I found her thoroughly unlikable and worse, unbelievable. The dialogue was cartoonish and over-the-top, and most of the characters were actively irritating. I don’t think characters necessarily need to be likable but there has to be a reason why someone wants to invest time in them as a reader. The characters weren’t interesting or complex, just mean, antagonistic and cringe-worthy.

However, in general people seemed to like this play and if you’re interested in the Trans rep (I believe it’s #ownvoices) I say go for it- but I don’t recommend spending money on it if you don’t have to.