Review: Bryna Turner's 'The Visitors' Tests Love Against Kidney Failure

Bryna Turner's new play "The Visitors," a Second Stage production at the Pershing Square Signature Center in Manhattan, runs through Dec. 6. It asks a blunt question: if a loved one needs a kidney, will a sibling give a part of them?

The play opens on a couple cradling a baby on a living room floor, murmuring vows of sacrifice — cut-off limbs, taken bullets, a trek through Tolkien's Mordor. To sacrifice, in their framing, is to prove love. The lovers are Joanna (Mary Wiseman) and Naomi (Esco Jouléy). The baby's father is Joanna's brother Henry (Will Pullen), who has joined the couple and two other siblings for a reunion in the New York City loft Joanna and Naomi share.

Joanna has convened the family for one reason: both of her kidneys are failing, and she desperately needs a transplant.

What happens when the family gathers?

Turner, who uses they/them pronouns, writes realistic dialogue and conveys fraught sibling dynamics with skill. The roles fall into clear birth-order positions. Theresa (Celia Keenan-Bolger), the oldest, shoulders the most responsibility. Rory (Danny Wolohan), next in line, is a drug addict with a thinly sketched backstory. Henry is the self-pitying middle child and a hothead. Joanna, in her 30s, is the youngest.

The show's charm lies in watching this quartet regress to childhood tendencies: adult siblings squished into the same pullout bed for late-night chats, or fighting gravely over a game of Catan. Turner exposes their sororal alliances and fraternal animosities — currents carved over decades.

The problem is exposition. Henry's malice-laced comments about Rory's addiction land without context. A huffed mention of Henry's financial success — crucial later — reads as a throwaway line when uttered. The characters chat about a past the audience is not privy to, and each figure trots around with a birth-order stereotype overhead, as the review puts it, "like a Sims crystal."

How do the performances hold up?

Wiseman, known for wiry, whipcrack comedy and a turn in Turner's acclaimed 2024 production "At the Wedding," struggles here. Joanna's dire state requires desperation and melancholic breakdowns; the review finds Wiseman fails to convey them convincingly. Keenan-Bolger fares better, deftly infusing Theresa with a politeness born of a lifetime of people-pleasing.

The action heats up at the inevitable dinner scene. Joanna stages a last supper that descends into hurled accusations and threats of violence. Jenna Worsham's direction injects physical humor, but by then the relationships feel clichéd, the plot anticipated, the stakes mishandled — "even bedlam feels boring."

What redeems the play?

Kate Noll's set design stands out: a homiest tableau of mismatched furniture and queer-coded décor, sweet evidence of two lives joined. If Joanna recovers, she and Naomi want to raise a child of their own there. Against misbehaving organs, anticipatory grief and lying family members, Joanna has someone loving her through the chaos.

That is the hope the play leaves behind — a hope more queer protagonists deserve, dulled by a script trading in stereotypes.

"The Visitors" runs through Dec. 6 at Second Stage, Pershing Square Signature Center, Manhattan; 2st.com. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.