The Pittsburgh Tatler: If you’ve read your Freud, you know that in German, the word we translate as “uncanny” is unheimlich, a word that derives from heimlich, which usually means “secret, furtive,” but which also has an older meaning of “belonging to the home, familiar, friendly, home-like.” These two meanings are actually related, through the dark fact that what “belongs to the home” is also often something that must be concealed or hidden within the domestic space – a secret or a dangerous impulse. As such, Freud explains, the unheimlich, or uncanny, is not the opposite of the heimlich (as the “un” would signify), but instead closely bound up with it: for something to be uncanny, it must not only be a little strange and mysterious, but also, on some level, deeply familiar.
2 comments:
Its truly a sign of talent and precision when a playwright is able to capture a family dynamic in a very clear organic fashion that transcends the outer facade of what a family is "supposed" to look like. I'm very excited to see the Humans at the Public as it is such an important piece of theatre that captures the effects of time and relationship. What what is so amazing about "The Humans" is that while Karam's writing never romanticizes these characters nor minimizes the struggles of those who find themselves lower-middle class and older in years in today's increasingly elitist and divisive America, he focuses on their connections with each other. You watch them drive each other crazy, but you also want them at your own dinner.
A family has conversation for about two hours. There is some passive aggressive staring, a little bit a yelling, some tears, lots of laughter, and even a song. It is a new kind of realism, that shows what real life for a family is all about. If this play does to me what August Osage County did, it would go down as one of the most important shows about the family dynamic.
The description of the show The Humans at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre had me wanting to see the show for myself. The theme of happenings throughout the show being "uncanny" presents and interesting dichotomy between the unfamiliar and foreign, and the completely familiar. To me this presents an extremely difficult yet exciting design dilema-- throughout the article I was wondering how the designers managed to make things appear everyday and commonplace, but with something that is just slightly off. If I were a designer on this show, I'd attempt to create a world around the actors that has all the look of a normal setting, but change just one familiar aspect of this world-- for instance, as the scenic designer executed, the set is a spacious apartment in New York City, yet things like the electricity failing occasionally and sounds of things deteriorating in the house makes the set just that more uncanny.
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