‘the aves’ @ Union Arts Center

A couple sits on a park bench. They talk about birds. Maybe rain. It feels like any afternoon you’ve ever half-noticed from across a path.

“the aves” does what only great theater can: It makes the ordinary strange, the quiet funny and the familiar devastating. Playwright Jiehae Park, known for her inventive, boundary-pushing style, sets something loose in what looks like a simple conversation, and director Sheila Daniels leads a cast including Seattle favorites R. Hamilton Wright and Kathy Hsieh through a world that keeps shifting underfoot across memory, forgiveness, identity and the long work of becoming who we are.

As The San Francisco Chronicle described the Berkeley Rep production, this is a show that tells “stories Netflix can’t tell.”

Local artists. Captivating stories. A nonprofit theatre built for everyone. Union Arts Center is downtown Seattle’s thriving artistic home.