A House Divided Visits a Family in the Aftermath of the Events of 2016 and 2020

Thanksgiving Day, 2021. COVID lingers. The Trump Era is (temporarily) interrupted. The working-class Gebauer family of south Philadelphia reunites for their first in-person gathering in years, after their personal and political differences had driven them apart. Thus begins A House Divided: A Blue Collar Comedy on National Themes, a timely, powerful and very entertaining work by Joshua Crone.

Jim (Mark Thomas McKenna) is a long-haul trucker and Trump supporter, separated from his liberal wife, schoolteacher Rosalie (Alyssa Simon), who is hosting for the holiday. “Granny” Alice (Jenny Martel) is initially not in attendance, and is only appearing via FaceTime, as Jim has refused to vaccinate and she doesn’t want to risk exposure. Adam McDowell is the Gebauer’s son Jimmy, a pastor, who has brought his devout girlfriend Grace (Kinah Britton), a woman of color, to the gathering. The couple has two related major life announcements to tell the family, but Jimmy is aware that they may not go over well, particularly with the “old-fashioned” (to put it mildly) Alice. Sammy (Hayley Pace) is the Gebauer’s other child, arriving with a Covid mask on—and a major life announcement of his own, which is unlikely to be welcomed by either Alice or Jim. All is revealed at the unseen dinner, and the family returns to the living room to deal with the aftermath, the chasm between them even wider than before.

Where the characters agree and disagree is handled very interestingly and realistically. Jimmy is the only character who tries to consistently put acceptance and understanding above all else, but struggles to maintain the role of peacekeeper. Jim is somewhat sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement, agreeing that police brutality and prejudice is a real thing, but he rolls his eyes at Rosalie’s having put a BLM flag in the window—suspecting it’s only there because Grace was coming. Rosalie later admits he’s right, but Grace is not impressed, and actually distances herself from the movement. Sammy and Alice agree on masks, but decidedly differ on Sammy’s revelation.

Hayley Pace gives a nuanced, sensitive performance as Sammy, who reveals to the family that he will seek gender-affirming surgery—despite being assigned female at birth, he’s a boy and always has been. The reactions of the other characters vary dramatically; Jim is aghast, verbally dismissive, and refuses to use Sammy’s pronouns (as foreshadowed earlier in the play when he can’t even remember to use his wife’s own preferred version of her name). The old-school religious Grace also condemns the notion, driving a wedge between her and Jimmy, who fully supports his sibling. Progressive Rosalie is also completely on Sammy’s side, but also very awkward and occasionally unhelpful—and Sammy calls her on that. The frustrated Rosalie later admits that as an ally she’s trying to do the right thing, but feels she keeps doing it the wrong way. Meanwhile the spark is still there between her and Jim, and they go from flirting to fighting in the blink of an eye—again, a very realistic take on the complexities of human relationships.

Crone’s writing crucially does not take sides—events play out and the audience is allowed to take it all in without being manipulated into any character’s corner. The effect is a blend of All in The Family and the notorious “Seven Fishes” episode of The Bear. Which is to say there is a lot of humor mixed in with the dysfunctional strife, making the story more true-to-life than it would have been if it were nothing but melodramatic angst and shouting. Early on there is a comedic sequence involving the charred turkey, which brings in a fireman (Will Maizel) after a funny phone mix-up with the operator (Tiffany Ray). There’s even two invisible (but adorable) energetic cats, Smokey and Bandit, unseen but very much heard.

The characters escape from the conflict by reminiscing about the good times back in the day, trying to recapture the bond among them. They take turns noodling meditatively at the electric piano at the front of the stage. Jim tunes out the fighting literally, by singing loudly as he works on fixing the fireplace, trying to reclaim his former role in the family. These interludes culminate in an unexpected, hilarious Broadway-style song (by Michael and Joshua Crone) from the entire cast that provides a catharsis, and gently pokes fun at the inherent weirdness of the musical trope of everyone knowing the same song and suddenly bursting into it.

The actors gel remarkably, giving the impression of relationships with a long, complex history. At the end of the play we see them all as human beings, and despite their very serious differences the connections and love are still there among them. A heartwarming sequence involving popcorn and family-favorite movie Convoy drives this home (and “warm fuzzies” abound). A House Divided successfully shows us the angst, heartache, and growing pains of the 2020s, but reminds us that warmth and sweetness can still follow.

A House Divided is directed by Thoeger Hansen and is a production of Night Cook Studio. It runs at The NuBox at John DeSotelle studio through March 30, 2025.