The reviews are in for Human Things, the first play by Joshua Owen to reach Off-Broadway, which opened on September 25 at the West End Theatre on West 86th Street in a staging by Rory McGregor. A young couple, played by Rebeca Robles and Ben Rosenfield, are studying a dwindling bird colony on a remote Pacific atoll when an older pair, Victoria Clark and Michael Mulheren, wreck their boat on the reef just ahead of a category five typhoon. Clark is the story of the notices: critic after critic calls her the reason to buy a ticket, and TheaterMania and Talkin’ Broadway both credit her with the second act. Owen’s script gets a far cooler reception, with the arguments centering on its crowded set of themes and on the turn the play takes after the storm.
The verdict: nine reviews so far, and only one of them carries a score: The Front Row Center gives the play 3.4 out of 5. The cast is the closest thing to a consensus, and Victoria Clark above all: TheaterMania, The Front Row Center and Cititour all call her the best reason to go, Talkin’ Broadway says she makes her second act unforgettable, Theater Scene says she was worth a hot, cramped room on her own, and Stage and Cinema and Theater Pizzazz are just as warm. The play itself divides them. TheaterMania enjoys how strange it is, Stage and Cinema calls it an affecting night and Theater Pizzazz finds it riveting, while New York Theatre Guide calls it more peculiar than provocative, The Front Row Center says it drifts, Cititour finds it diffuse and old-fashioned, and Talkin’ Broadway and Theater Scene both think the second act’s turn into science fiction costs the play its footing.
What are critics saying about Human Things?
TheaterMania
“Human Things, Stranded on a Desert Island with Victoria Clark”
Reviewer: Zachary Stewart
“Theatergoers who caught Clark’s Tony-winning performance in Kimberly Akimbo, or her excellent turn in last season’s Punch, will be unsurprised to learn that Clark is the best reason to see Human Things. Even in the most contrived situations, she never surrenders her honest and idiosyncratic humanity, facing down death with a wily gaze and incredulous lips. She makes the second act particularly thrilling, completing a character arc that is darkly funny and heartbreaking, holding the audience in the palm of her hand the entire time.”
New York Theatre Guide
“marriage is an island”
Reviewer: Joe Dziemianowicz
“It all adds up to a show that’s more peculiar than provocative, as Owen’s reach exceeds his grasp. Still, save for a few windy speeches, including one about a dream and others meant to illustrate colorful character backgrounds, the dialogue feels real enough. Another plus is director Rory McGregor’s cast of four fine actors, who hug the curves of the script.”
Read Joe Dziemianowicz’s full review at New York Theatre Guide
The Front Row Center
Reviewer: Tulis McCall · 3.4 out of 5
“Instead the landscape of the story remains as vague as this couple’s location. The actors are all in. They are 100% every one. Each does the best they can with what they have been given by Owen and the director Rory McGregor. In the end, however, these characters feel incomplete. As if what they are saying is fish food sprinkled on the surface of the story. We never get a deep dive. This story has no north star. It is traveling point to point with no apparent destination. Even the surprise special effects in the second act don’t close the deal. It is drifting from start to finish.”
Talkin’ Broadway
Reviewer: Moshe A. Bloxenheim
“In the post-storm second act, Darce–who is literally stuck in an agonizing position–becomes the pivot around which the other characters desperately rotate, and Clark takes an already skilled performance and makes it truly unforgettable. Robles and Rosenfield also earn kudos for their attempts to rise to the dramatic occasion, but while I can see the desperation and fear that Margaret and Greg are exhibiting, they are hamstrung by a script that is too intent on making some sort of statement rather than focusing on the gut-wrenching situation at hand.”
Stage and Cinema
Reviewer: Alex Simmons
“Human Things works as a tragicomic four-hander; its two-hour runtime sails by thanks to its splendid cast. Robles brings a fiery intensity to Margaret, Rosenfield an earnest likability to Greg, Mulheren an easy warmth to Bo, and Clark a wonderfully mercurial humor to Darce. The design team makes full use of the West End Theatre’s modest space and budget. With sharp comedic turns, Human Things turns a remote island, an approaching storm, and two troubled marriages into an affecting night of theater.”
Theater Pizzazz
“‘Human Things’ – Unnerving”
Reviewer: Alix Cohen
“Victoria Clark, of whom I’m a FAN, adroitly plays to the quicksilver and dry humor aspects of Darce. Bristling or crookedly smiling, we accept the whole character. There is, however, one passage where more apt pain seems likely to surface than is shown.”
Cititour
“Human Things Falls Apart”
Reviewer: Brian Scott Lipton
“Luckily, the show has one big saving grace: the ever-extraordinary Victoria Clark, turning in a finely tuned, fully lived-in performance as Darce, a no-nonsense Midwesterner with a fondness for bourbon (and a hatred for Scotch) and a sometimes too-quick tongue. (Is Clark really too old to play Albee’s Martha? I say not!) A consummate technician, Clark has even got Darce’s Kansas quasi-Southern accent down pat. (Bless her heart!)”
Theater Scene
Reviewer: Lydia Keidel
“Director Rory McGregor wisely let this amazing cast develop their characters fully, and that is the biggest gift of this show. Getting to see two-time Tony winner Victoria Clark at most two feet away, giving a performance that would no doubt win her a third Tony, was worth the inhospitable conditions. When she is on stage, it’s impossible not to focus on her.”
Also reviewed by: The New York Sun (Elysa Gardner, “A Climate of Discontent”), whose review sits behind a paywall.
For more of what the New York critics have been saying, read our roundups for Delirium at the Space at Irondale, Degenerates at Playwrights Horizons and The Holes at the Wild Project.
Human Things runs at the West End Theatre, 263 West 86th Street, through October 18, 2026. The running time is about two hours, including an intermission. Production photos by Emilio Madrid.
