A sign of a great comedy is its ability to make you cry tears of laughter at a situation that in real life would cause you to break down in tears of pain.
That’s just what Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ “Human Error” does, turning what could be the subject of a Lifetime drama into a hilarious odd couple meets fertility treatments soaked in the tribal politics of a post 2016 election America.
The story centers around Madelyn and Keenan, a liberal mixed-race couple who are mortified to find their fertilized embryo has been accidentally given to conservative white Christians Heather and Jim. When Heather and Jim decide to become Madelyn and Keenan’s surrogates, it starts a nine month journey of ill-fitting politics, world views and religious beliefs that manages to elicit laughter out of a cringe worthy situation.
The reason “Human Error” works so well in large part is to playwright Eric Pfeffinger’s refusal to pick sides in the philosophical banter playing out on stage. While the audience’s window into the story starts with Madelyn and Keenan, it is clear from the outset that there are no right answers in this tug of war. Pfeffinger paints his characters with a broad brush but still gives them touching details that move them from being just stereotypes. Yes, Jim is a proud, MAGA cap wearing redneck, and Madelyn is a hyper-stressed, NPR listening yoga teacher. But by the end of the show, it is obvious that everyone on stage is so much more than the labels assigned to them.
The entire show is just a well-acted piece of theater. But in a cast full of great performances, Marissa McGowan’s Heather is somehow on another level. She hits every note perfectly, whether it’s bringing to life Heather’s naiveté about what it’s like to be non Christian, or her fragility as a mother carrying a child that ultimately will not be hers. And Wayne Kennedy as the fertility doctor mines every possible bit of comedy in the script and gives the show some of its biggest laughs in the few scenes he has on stage.
“Human Error” isn’t just an opportunity to send up the political tribalism that exists in modern America. The show threads a delicate needle between satire and think piece, social commentary and goofball comedy. The message of the show isn’t what side is right and which side is wrong but about what we all share — the fear of being a new parent, the struggle for success and recognition, the pain of losing a child.
For as funny as the show is, it could all have been destroyed by a ham-fisted ending that paints a simple solution to all that ails us as a divided society. Instead “Human Error” doesn’t claim to have any of the answers to how to bridge that gap. In fact, the gap is still very much there by the time the curtain falls. But for some of the characters on stage, they at least recognize that on the other side of the divide exists someone they share something both special and painful with.
In a world so toxic and torn, it’s a start.
4 out of 5 stars
“Human Error” at DCPA’s Garner Galleria Theatre
Playing now through June 24. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.denvercenter.org/shows/specific-series/Get?Id=fc771e62-5bbc-4147-8b79-e09b39f3f0a6.