Entertainment Featuring fresh takes and real-time analysis from HuffPost's signature lineup of contributors Michael Giltz Freelance writerGET UPDATES FROM MICHAEL GILTZ Follow Theater , Mare Winnigham , Deaf , Deafness , Hearing Impaired , Mare-Winningham , Off- Broadway , Entertainment News 4 22 0 0React Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyTheater: Hear This Loud and Clear -- Tribes One of Year's Best TRIBES *** 1/2 out of **** BARROW STREET THEATRE Nina Raine's new drama Tribes is unquestionably one of the best plays of the year.</p><p> Even its flaws -- notably a second act overstuffed with some unnecessary plot twists-- feel like the flaws of an ambitious young playwright bursting with talent and something to say.</p><p> It's the sort of talent that makes you listen very carefully. "Listening" -- and the lack of it -- is exactly what Tribes is about.</p><p> The show begins as a comic drama centeringaround a hyper-intellectual, Glass-like family.</p><p> DadChristopher (Jeff Perry) publishes dense literarycriticism and is learning a Chinese language on the side.Son Daniel (Will Brill) is apparently recovering fromsome sort of mental breakdown and hears voices when he isn't lambasting everyone else, including sister Ruth, who labors at an opera career by getting gigs inlocal pubs.</p><p> Youngest brother Billy (Russell Harvard) is deaf and seemingly everyone's favorite even ashe's off in a corner ignoring or oblivious to the torrent of words around him.</p><p> Mom Beth (MareWinningham) is the relatively sane center, yet even she is working on a detective novel without botheringto decide in advance whodunit.</p><p> But the least demonstrative family member takes center stage when Billy attends a party where he flirts with Sylvia (Susan Pourfar), a young woman who is going deaf.</p><p> Billy has always resisted sign language,not to mention being drawn into the deaf community.</p><p> With Sylvia as his entree, suddenly Billy feels athome like he never did before.</p><p> His growing independence sends shock waves through the family.</p><p> Billyplans to move out and then a new job as a lip reader for the court system gains him sudden attention inMOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2 Isaac Balloons Into A Hurricane, New Orleans Threatened Limbaugh's Wild Isaac Conspiracy GOP Candidate Compares Pregnancy From Rape To What? MAP: Hurricane Isaac's Path Aims For Gulf Coast Sylvester Stallone's Half- Sister Dies At 48 GOP Approves Abortion Ban FOLLOW USCelebrity TV Political Hollywood Features Hollywood Buzz Videos August 28, 2012 Edition: U.S.</p><p> John Hillcoat Sen.</p><p> Ben Cardin Harry Shearer Jeffrey SachsHOT ON THE BLOG HuffPost Social Reading Like 102 Posted: 03/ 5/2012 4:48 pm SHARE THIS STORY Submit this storyGet Entertainment Alerts Sign UpRecommend 626 Like 6k Recommend 18k Recommend 190 Recommend 241 Recommend 7k Electronic Dance Music Political Hollywood The Avengers One Direction Armchair Detective More Log in Create Accountthe media.</p><p> Most dramatically of all, Billy decides he'll only communicate via sign, demanding the rest of his family finally learn the language if they want to speak with him.</p><p> This sends the fragile Daniel into a desperate spiral.</p><p> Always wildly dependent on the younger Billy for solace, affection and attention, Daniel's childhood stutter returns, making it more and more difficult forhim to communicate.</p><p> The prickly father Christopher sees the demand to learn sign as an affront both tothe family's upbringing of Billy and a dangerously isolating gesture.</p><p> And Billy's girlfriend Sylvia findsherself placed in the awkward position of translator just as she's overwhelmed with the emotional falloutfrom a massive deterioration in hearing.</p><p> In other words, this is a rich work bursting with distinctive, funny and frustrating characters who surprise and move us repeatedly.</p><p> The cast is marvelous throughout (despite modest British accents) and director David Cromer deserves to have as big a hit with this as he did with the landmark revival of Our Town.</p><p> He's staged the show in the round for this production.</p><p> In the UK, Billy's isolation was highlighted by his literal isolation on the stage.</p><p> Here, with the audience on all four sides, Billy seems more fullyincorporated into the family.</p><p> So it's only in retrospect we realize how much the conversation wasbouncing over and around Billy; how often he had to say "What?" when some exchange slipped by himonly to be told it didn't matter.</p><p> Staging the play in the round has other benefits because it heightens our awareness of listening.</p><p> We're acutely reminded of this every time someone has their back to us but is speaking; with at least onecharacter on stage who is deaf, it's a constant nudge to let us know we might be hearing what is beingsaid but someone who needs to lip-read would be lost.</p><p> The very detriment of staging in the round here becomes a positive; the usual frustration of knowing that we can't see an actor's face but that other members of the audience get a perfectly good view is an excellent subliminal underlining of the Billy's existence.</p><p> Judicious use of subtitles work well for some of the scenes heavy with signing -- especially when they're turned off.</p><p> When Billy and Sylvia sign in front of his family and the dialogue isn't always flashed on thesubtitle screen, we're shown what it's like for the family to suddenly feel cut off from what is being said.That of course is exactly what Billy experiences every day, a point driven home when a raging argumentis suddenly depicted from his point of view and all we hear is a white noise buzz while Billy stands in acorner, the other actors mouthing bits of dialogue we'll never hear.</p><p> This staging in the round is sosuccessful, I'd almost never want to see it performed in a more traditional set-up, though that's how itdebuted in the UK.</p><p> The especially important and effective sound design is by Daniel Kluger, who joins a great technical team, including Scott Pask's warm dining room set dominated by a table where the family gathers, spot-on costumes by Tristan Raines and lighting by Keith Parham that subtly echoes the isolation so many characters can feel.</p><p> The cast as mentioned is top-notch, taking parts that could easily go over-the-top and keeping them grounded.</p><p> Will Brill has a tricky role as the flashy, unstable Daniel.</p><p> If the play pounds home the messageof communication too directly by having Daniel revert to stuttering, Brill keeps his fragility and needinessfront and center.</p><p> Russell Harvard is marvelous as Billy, reeling us in with his warmth and empathy andthen throwing cold water on our perceptions with his righteous anger.</p><p> Susan Pourfar has a marvelousturn as Sylvia -- her hearing degenerates throughout the show so Pourfar must subtly show that declinein her speaking voice without seeming too showy.</p><p> Jeff Parry is always a marvelous presence on stage anddelivers here as the aggressively intellectual father who pushes and pushes and pushes others and then isalways surprised when they topple over or push back in anger.</p><p> The other women have less interestingroles but make the most of them.</p><p> Gayle Rankin scores amusing retorts as the middle sibling, often theone who gets lost in the shuffle.</p><p> And Mare Winningham turns a secondary role into the stable heart ofthe family.</p><p> Her warmth and conviction let you immediately understand why this rather dysfunctionalfamily hasn't fallen apart already.</p><p> The script is loaded with such dramatic confrontations that the second act collapse of Daniel and Billy's subplot about problems with his new job feel quite unnecessary (and in the case of the job quiteunmotivated).</p><p> But those are modest reservations.</p><p> This is a good play by Nina Raine given a greatproduction that ends on a heartfelt, desperate note with two people trying to communicate even as thelights inexorably dim.</p><p> The Theater Season 2011-2012 (on a four star scale)The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs ** 1/2 All-American ** All's Well That Ends Well/Shakespeare in the Park ** Assistance ** PHOTO: Christina Aguilera's 'Your Body' Dress Doesn't Leave Much To The Imagination PHOTOS: 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