Anybody with siblings will recognize certain dynamics in The Visitors, a new comedy-drama by Bryna Turner premiering on Monday. The opening scene of Turner’s neatly-written play, set nowadays in a New York City apartment, introduces two brothers and two sisters as they get together after a long while. Soon the reunion leads into a “big ask” from one of them likely to make viewers wonder in their hearts how they might react to such a request.
First let’s meet these 30s/40s-somethings as they gather at the comfy home Joanna (Mary Wiseman) shares with her partner Naomi (Esco Jouléy). Theresa (Celia Keenan-Bolger) is the eldest, a warm mom kind of womanly woman. Henry (Will Pullen) is the uptight, irritable brother who arrives without his spouse but toting their infant daughter. Last to show up, as usual, is Rory (Danny Wolohan), the sweet, messed-up sibling recently out of rehab and looking vague. Forever the baby in this bunch, Joanna explains she summoned everybody because she needs a kidney and hopes one of them will provide it.
How these people respond to this news and what it reveals about their characters and their relationships is rolled out agreeably in Turner’s 95-minute play. For its greater part, mostly humorous conversations naturally will flow through nine scenes moving inevitably towards sharper confrontations. The Visitors is a relatable comedy-drama, with minor reservations: Perhaps adding a figure from the older generation could offer perspective to the siblings’ claims on each other. Also, the character of Naomi registers as a compendium of lesbian cliches, although likely the playwright is being satirical. Happily, Jouléy invests Naomi with a wry good nature. Other performances are persuasive, too, although the play suffers from a major miscalculation in director Jenna Worsham’s well-acted premiere for Second Stage.
A relatively intimate work, The Visitors is being produced at the Irene Diamond Stage at the Signature Center. Although the auditorium seats only 294 viewers, the performance space is notably wide and deep. Worsham and scenic designer Kate Noll choose to fill out this frame handsomely by presenting the apartment as a vast, airy loft stuffed with furniture, plants, and all sorts of distractingly cute detail amid its nooks and French doors. The room begs the question of where Joanna, no heiress, and Naomi, a theatrical props designer, get the bucks to afford such large living in New York City today, particularly when arguments in the drama speak to the economics of obtaining body parts.
More critically, despite strategic lighting provided by designer Stacey Derosier, the actors usually appear swallowed up by the hangar-like space looming around them. Clear vocal reinforcement by sound designer Fan Zhang helps to bridge a flattening sense of distance, but the good play and worthy performances would benefit from another visual concept or a more accommodating theater.
The Visitors opened November 9, 2026, at the Signature Center and runs through December 6. Tickets and information: 2st.com
