UNREALIZED SCENIC DESIGN for
MIMI LIEN’S SET DESIGN II at NYU TISCH
WRITTEN BY TAYLOR MAC
Taylor Mac’s Hir (2015) tells the story of the nuclear family under meltdown. Isaac, a war veteran with a history of drug abuse comes home to find his sibling has transitioned, his father is a catatonic, and his mother has imposed a rule of disorder on their previously well-kempt suburban home. Through the lens of the Connor’s and their sometimes playful and sometimes vicious attacks, Mac seeks to dismantle the long-standing optimism of the American family drama. Taking cues from Taylor Max’s polemical attacks against bourgeois exurban American life and its moral and environmental failings, this production of Hir takes place on a contained film set riffing on games like the Sims, American post-modern architecture, and American sitcom language (all aspirational and absurd realist reactions to American residential life). The audience watches from above, looking down and catching glimpses of scenes around walls and through windows but also through videos walls on the upper level, where hidden cameras capture HD footage of the scenes as well as video collages of quoted camp classics or abjected source material. The walls are caked in some matter— whether it’s excrement or Hershey’s syrup is hard to tell. The house has a glossy store bought vinyl quality, the lighting is slightly too harsh, and the makeup is pancakey.
MIMI LIEN’S SET DESIGN II at NYU TISCH
HIR
WRITTEN BY TAYLOR MAC
Taylor Mac’s Hir (2015) tells the story of the nuclear family under meltdown. Isaac, a war veteran with a history of drug abuse comes home to find his sibling has transitioned, his father is a catatonic, and his mother has imposed a rule of disorder on their previously well-kempt suburban home. Through the lens of the Connor’s and their sometimes playful and sometimes vicious attacks, Mac seeks to dismantle the long-standing optimism of the American family drama. Taking cues from Taylor Max’s polemical attacks against bourgeois exurban American life and its moral and environmental failings, this production of Hir takes place on a contained film set riffing on games like the Sims, American post-modern architecture, and American sitcom language (all aspirational and absurd realist reactions to American residential life). The audience watches from above, looking down and catching glimpses of scenes around walls and through windows but also through videos walls on the upper level, where hidden cameras capture HD footage of the scenes as well as video collages of quoted camp classics or abjected source material. The walls are caked in some matter— whether it’s excrement or Hershey’s syrup is hard to tell. The house has a glossy store bought vinyl quality, the lighting is slightly too harsh, and the makeup is pancakey.
^COSTUMES AND EMOTIONAL RESPONSE
