In Stephen Kaplan’s “Un Hombre,” a widowed mother, Rebecca Wolfson, and her son, Josh, are frozen in grief. While Josh struggles to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah, Rebecca hides in her basement studio where she unintentionally sculpts a golem. The new heart in a wounded family, the golem communicates in Hebrew, Spanish, and English and sings licks of musical theater, both to console Rebecca and Josh and to help them reconnect to each other and to living. Poetic and theatrical, “Un Hombre” examines timeless philosophical questions with humor and tenderness. The final scene will break your heart. Highly recommended.

Un Hombre manages to be powerful and intimate, searing and funny, steeped in the tradition of Golem stories and also as new as yet-to-be-shaped clay. Kaplan gives us nuanced and fully-felt responses to grief, from anger and denial to the ways we can learn to reconnect to the world and one another. Just as Rebecca sculpts new life from clay, the play creates a renewed mother-child relationship from the pain and shared love they feel. Beautifully wrought.

This is one of those rare plays that will stick with you long after you've read it. Un Hombre is simultaneously: (1) a celebration of language, art, and culture and the way that it impacts our humanity (2) an exploration of grief and family, and (3) a dream for actors and designers alike, with space for each.