There’s so much going on in the new off-Broadway show “Tribes” that it’s almost overwhelming: intellect and sentiment, love and cruelty, witty zingers and biting put-downs. But in Nina Raine’s dazzling play, too much is a good thing.
Directed by David Cromer at the Barrow Street Theatre — long home to his hit revival of “Our Town” — “Tribes” is a family drama that constantly sidesteps that genre’s clichés.
But Raine and Cromer don’t hit us over the head with how clever they are. Instead, they and their brilliant cast target both brain and heart. The troubled characters raise provocative issues, but we always empathize with them.
The story centers on a deaf young man, Billy (Russell Harvard), an expert lip-reader with a hearing family. He falls in love with Sylvia (Susan Pourfar), who, having deaf parents, is fluent in sign language. Now genetics are catching up with her, and she’s losing her hearing.
Billy’s sudden and passionate embrace of the deaf community drives a wedge between him and his boisterous, bohemian family. His mother, Beth (Mare Winningham), and sister, Ruth (Gayle Rankin), cope well enough. His tormented brother, Daniel (Will Brill), does not — “I always thought the signing persona was a bit Jewish,” he sniffs, among other jibes — and skids into a self-destructive spin.
But the worst is dad Christopher (Jeff Perry), a writer so obsessed with being a free-thinker that he ends up a selfish, insensitive jerk. “The deaf!” Christopher mocks self-righteously. “The f – – king Muslims of the handicapped world.”
“Tribes” is tricky to put on and perform. It’s fast-paced, includes extensive signing and projections, physical and verbal cross-talk, and multilayered characters who often behave badly. But once again, Cromer confirms that he’s one of our most vital, most sensitive directors.
By staging the show in the round, he creates a you-are-there immediacy, but also underlines the play’s concern with the need to belong and communication breakdowns. The audience loses out on visual cues by not seeing some people’s faces when they speak, just like Billy’s family is excluded from conversations in sign language, and Sylvia strains to lip-read.
Granted, Raine overstuffs her play, loading every detail with meaning — Ruth wants to be an opera singer, Daniel hears voices, Christopher learns Chinese rather than sign language. A subplot involving Billy’s deciphering surveillance tapes for the courts fizzles out.
But those small missteps don’t weaken the show’s emotional power. In that respect, “Tribes” is pitch-perfect.