New Heights, Old Themes: The Hills of California

It is really hard to say you liked a play when you leave feeling slightly ill. Ill not because of the acting, set, or theatre, but because of the age old theme that hasn’t gone away. The Hills of California presents themes that we have read in books, seen on film, Netflix’d, written or listened to poetry about and watched series around for at least a decade. Despite all that, The Hills of California doesn’t seem old or stale, but it also doesn’t seem new. It left me feeling in the weird sort of limbo which is perhaps the exact same place we are in with the “me too” movement, This is not exactly a “me too” play because it is about so many more layers of power, economic status, and the cycles that we seek to break. Given all that there are still some laughs and tender moments as well. While this is by no means a musical, the singing is worth mentioning because it is so nostalgic and done so well.

The Huntington chose to kick off their season with The Hills of California, written by British playwright and screen writer Jez Butterworth. A good writer is a good writer, but a play that is centered around a single mother and her four daughters written by a man will always come from a slightly different perspective. That being said, the dynamics between the young daughters, and the adults they become, are a carefully curated centerpiece of the show that keep you at the table.

Karen Killeen as Jillian was excellent. Killeen played a character that has an innocence, even as an adult, despite the fact that she is also carrying so much weight of the family drama. While each daughter was a bit of a cliché they represented variations on the teenage tropes we know so well. The Hills of California, neither presents a new story, nor does it share it in a new way, but maybe that is what we need to help some people understand how real these power dynamics were and still are. This is a show that does relationships extremely well. The interactions between mothers and daughters, daughters amongst themselves, and men and women are a strange sort of opportunity to process the human relationships that we may relate to directly or just parenthetically.

In addition to an excellent cast, the set itself is impressive not only in height and detail, but how those elements are key to the story itself. The staircase, in particular, is as important as the majority of the characters in the play .

The Hills of California is playing at The Huntington Theatre through October 12th. The play run time is 2 hours and 40 minutes with one 10 minute intermission. Tickets can be purchased here and as with every Huntington Theatre show there are many options for discounted and student tickets.