A Deeply Human KIN — Review

Bathsheba Doran’s haunting and deceptively complicated play “Kin,” which had its premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2011, is a wise choice for a new theatre company’s inaugural production. For Making Our Space Theatre Co., it’s an auspicious debut. 

Directed with tender ingenuity by Spencer Whale (Lempicka, Vile Isle), this moving production reminds us that to know another person may be impossible, but it’s always worth it to try.

“Kin” is a love story told unconventionally. Our lovers, Anna, an intellectual poet, and Sean, an Irish personal trainer, are rarely given any alone time on stage. Instead, through a kaleidoscope of vignette-like scenes, we learn about their relationship and personal histories from their community: their families, their friends, even the ancillary characters they never meet provide insight into what it means to be two people searching for love and connection in the modern age.

While “Kin” takes place largely in the early 2000s, when Facebook was still a novelty, Doran’s play, paired with Whale’s deft hand, foregrounds the difference between then and our present, while still making clear that the anxieties and complexities of human relationships have gone unchanged. 

When Anna (Sophia Castuera) tells her best friend Helena (Ellie M. Plourde), an underemployed actress, that she’s looking online for a new boyfriend, Helena bemoans “the machine” that picks out our mates for us based on the criteria we input, rather than leaving such a decision to chance or fate. While dating apps have become commonplace, we can identify the present woes of our increasingly atomized and algorithmized lives. Still, it’s what brings Anna and Sean (Eli Mazursky) together and leads to their blossoming love.

This is not a love characterized by unrealistic tropes—blind devotion and unwavering faith. Throughout the play, both Anna and Sean are riddled with doubt about the viability of their relationship and their own commitment to it. As we learn about their families, it’s no wonder why. Sean was raised in Ireland by his mother Linda (Melissa Hurst), whose descent into agoraphobia after an assault drove Sean’s father away. Conversely, Anna’s mother died when she was young, leaving her in the care of her military father Adam (Timothy Wagner), whose icy stoicism drives a wedge between himself and his daughter. Our lovers’ models of romantic love are tainted by the trauma passed down through their broken families.

But “Kin” is more hopeful than that. It’s a play dedicated to showing us that no one defining event makes us who we are. We park ourselves in one story, letting our past dictate who we are today, but it doesn’t have to be that way. When Sean visits his ex-girlfriend Rachel (Yuka Taga), whose brush with death due to their shared use of drugs and alcohol haunts him, we gain insight into his ambivalence about Anna, whose love doesn’t carry the same intensity for him. He’s also able to let go of Rachel and that time in his life. Sometimes, it takes those around us to show us what’s real. 

There are at least four other characters in this play that I’ve yet to mention. A lesser playwright wouldn’t be able to carry such weight but Doran has created a rich ensemble of multifaceted characters without overstuffing the narrative.

Because we learn most of what we know about Anna and Sean through the people that surround them, they are the least articulated characters in the piece. Castuera and Mazursky work beautifully to define the central pair of lovers as they are not as well-developed by Doran as the others. 

Plourde is hilarious as the chatty and sometimes vapid best friend. She continues to shine in some of the play’s most raw moments, displaying an impressive range of skills. Hurst, as Sean’s mother, maintains all aspects of her character’s humanity, including her warm wit, never devolving into a caricature of mental illness. Whale has given his actors the space to explore every aspect of their characters, even the messy and unlikable parts.

Michael Lewis’ scenic design, coupled with Yichen Zhou’s inventive lighting design, creates a liminal space for these scenes, which stretch from various places in the United States to Ireland. With its exposed wood, half-finished walls, and packed boxes, is it a house still being built or one that has fallen into disrepair? As these characters come together and fall apart, the answer keeps changing. 

“Kin” is a rare gem of a play and this production captures its virtuosity. It’s funny yet poignant, both simple and complicated, unafraid to be messy. It’s deeply human. I’m excited to see what’s next for Making Our Space Theatre Co.

“Kin” runs through December 21st at The Chain Theatre.