In Purpose, the major new play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins now enjoying its world premiere at Steppenwolf, a Civil Rights icon and his formidable wife are hosting a homecoming celebration for their eldest son, just released from prison.
That tolls a bell or two. Also, the son is named after his globetrotting pastor father, which helped him successfully run for Congress. Junior then illegally used campaign funds to fuel a ridiculously lavish lifestyle and got caught. He lied about the source of income on the tax return he jointly filed with his wife, which set her up to be convicted, too. Because they have young children, she was able to delay her prison sentence until just after Junior’s release. You can understand that she’s not in the mood to celebrate.
So when one of the characters mentions the Rev. Jesse Jackson midway through the first act, it’s a genuine shock. This Rev. Solomon “Sonny” Jasper isn’t just a thinly veiled take on Jackson after all? The play takes place in a world where two pastors with such similar stories both had sons named after them who became congressmen only to end up behind bars and ascribe their fraudulent behavior to mental illness? Well, I’m sure there are some attorneys who’d love for us to think so.
Whether ripped from the headlines or not, this is a juicy set-up for the type of character-driven, scenery-chewing domestic drama Steppenwolf is rightly known for. If you enjoyed August: Osage County, grab some popcorn. You’re in for a wild ride.
The narrator of the piece is the youngest son, Nazareth, who tries so hard to distance himself from his dysfunctional family dynamics that his friend Aziza, who inadvertently joins the dinner party (she’s caught in bad weather after driving him to Chicago from New York), doesn’t even know who Naz’s famous father is until she’s ushered out of the snowstorm and into an even more dangerous maelstrom by matriarch Claudine Jasper.
Director Phylicia Rashad and a perfectly cast ensemble bring the show to thrilling, chilling life even though they were receiving new pages from Jacobs-Jenkins through preview week. When I saw Purpose more than a week after its high-wire opening, the cast was right in the flow, eliciting big laughs and even bigger gasps. This play undoubtedly will get even better as Jacobs-Jenkins refines it, but it’s already a knife’s-edge knockout.
The central tension, as in most family dramas, is the urge of some members to paper over uncomfortable truths and the need of others to shout them from the rooftops.
I say central, because there are plenty of other tensions here. Aziza has arrived with a secret she shares with Naz. Naz’s sexuality has clearly been a source of consternation for and discussion by his parents, especially his mother. They think they know, and they know they don’t approve. Meanwhile, Junior’s wife, Morgan, has brought a big bottle of hoarded prescription pills in her overnight bag and may be contemplating suicide. And Sonny, the patriarch at sixes and sevens over what to do with his diminished life in retirement–take up beekeeping, or start hunting again?–may be insisting that everyone finally start telling some real truths around here, but he may have some explosive secrets of his own.
Harry Lennix and Tamara Tunie set the tone as the always proper but never prim parents. Lennix’s Sonny takes the spotlight up top, but watch out for Claudine. Glenn Davis is an appropriately hot mess as Junior, trying on so many personae that it’s nearly impossible for anyone onstage or off to know when or if he’s expressing a sincere emotion. As his estranged spouse, Alana Arenas is razor sharp, openly plotting her revenge against the family that’s dominated and ruined her.
It’s left to the two youngest players, Ayanna Bria Bakari (the warm but somewhat anxious Aziza) and Jon Michael Hill (an independent soul with an artistic eye), to puncture the self-deceit and help members of the family truly see each other for who they are, perhaps for the first and only time. They do a marvelous job of it.
Kudos especially to Hill, who has a mountain of monologues to climb, which he does with the agility of a mountain goat. Occasionally, as in the “previously on” opening monologue of the second act delivered to a group of people who just saw the events play out live onstage 15 minutes earlier, this stream-of-consciousness wordstream floods the drama. But Hill plays it all incredibly well.
This is a highly accomplished, important new work. You’ve got a month to see, and savor, it here before it goes on to even bigger stages.
Purpose runs through May 12 at Steppenwolf Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Michael Brosilow
