By all appearances, Danai Gurira is on top of the world right now. She stars in the current biggest movie in the world,
Black Panther; is a cast member of one of the most popular shows on TV,
The Walking Dead; recently had her Broadway premiere as a playwright with
Eclipsed, the first Broadway play with an all-female and African American cast and creative team; and now her play
Familiar is premiering in Minnesota, where it is set and where she spent some of her formative years (she was born in Iowa, raised in her parents' native Zimbabwe, and returned to the Midwest to attend Macalester College). Phew! How can one person be so accomplished and talented? I don't know Danai, but I'm guessing the answer is many years of hard work and dedication. All of this is reason enough to see
Familiar at the Guthrie, with all of the attending buzz, but the reason to love it is that it's a really wonderful play with a brilliant cast. As the title implies, it's about families, one specific Zimbabwean-Minnesotan family in particular, that will feel familiar to anyone with a family.
