A prolonged trill of cicadas saturates COCA’s Berges Theatre as the house lights are dimmed. It’s an onslaught of sound establishing an immediate unease, before we meet the somewhat estranged siblings of the Lafayette family. They’ve come together to liquidate their late father’s ancestral plantation home in rural Arkansas, where grievances are excavated, and pretensions are prodded.
This setup may sound familiar.
For Obie and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the American family drama is one of this country's defining contributions to the world stage, and his play Appropriate bears the thematic fingerprints not only of Tennessee Williams, but also Eugene O'Neill and Tracy Letts. Recipient of the Sundance Institute's inaugural Tennessee Williams Award in 2013, Jacobs-Jenkins premiered Appropriate that same year at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky. After its Off-Broadway premiere in 2014, Appropriate made its Broadway debut in 2023, where it won three Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Play. For a season themed “The Tennessee Effect,” the festival’s decision to shift from its 11-year tradition of presenting a Tennessee Williams play as its flagship production and instead spotlight Jacobs-Jenkins is inspired.
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| Toni (Jilanne Marie Klaus), Bo (Michael James Reed), Rachel (Lizi Watt) and Ainsley (Aviv Giancola-Poremba) Photo credit: Phillip Hamer |
Members of the family gathered for this unhappy reunion include the eldest daughter and embittered caretaker Toni, (a perfectly toxic Jilanne Marie Klaus), who probably mourns her father most, and elevates martyrdom into an art form. Her brooding teenage son Rhys (Braden Phillips), is also in tow. Michael James Reed turns in a sterling performance (and provides one of the most moving moments in the play) as the middle son Bo, a peacemaker who’s more comfortable in D.C., tucked into his own family, living away from the oppressive heat and mosquitoes of the South. Hoping to recoup the money he poured into the upkeep of the house and his father, he wants the estate sale to be a financial success. He’s joined by his wife Rachel (Lizi Watt), who thinks the trip could serve as a “Southern History Road Trip” kind of thing for their kids, eight-year-old Ainsley (Aviv Giancola-Poremba) and Cassidy (Ainsley Hammond), a thirteen-year-old convinced she’s on the verge of adulthood. Lastly, there’s the youngest brother with a sordid past, Franz, formerly known as Frank (played with palpable anxiety by a wonderful Joel Moses). He’s newly sober and hasn’t been seen for a decade, and wants forgiveness. He’s accompanied by his supportive, sage-smudging fiancée, River (Maggie Newstead-Adams).
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| Cassidy (Ainsley Hammond), Rhys (Braden Phillips), Bo (Michael James Reed), Rachel (Lizi Watt), River (Maggie Newstead-Adams), Toni (Jilanne Marie Klaus) and Frank (Joel Moses). Photo credit: Phillip Hamer |
The family home sits close to a cemetery full of long-dead Lafayettes, and an unmarked burial site for generations of the enslaved who labored on the plantation -- a situational condition that hangs over the house like the grounds’ canopy of mossy trees. Once everyone's gathered in the haunted disarray of their father’s hoard though, it’s not long before the bickering starts, and every interaction between the siblings is charged with years of resentments and nervous discomfort. These characters are unpleasantly familiar, but undeniably sympathetic, and nail the laugh-out-loud moments that disarm and ease the tension. But you know it’s just a matter of time before something blows up. The catalyst is the discovery of some disturbing Jim Crow-era relics, and after being passed around and gawked at, Toni, Bo and Frank find themselves struggling to reckon with (or not) a legacy that distorts the memory of their father. The clamorous reactions and quieter one-on-one moments that follow bring the core nature of these individuals into sharp relief, and the dual meaning of the title (ap_pro_priate/appropri_ate_), starts to leak through. There's definitely some ugly in this play, but as Jacobs-Jenkins said in this featurette, "One of the most incredible and important things about the theater... is that we're creating a safe space for all feelings, but especially ugly feelings."
Matthew McCarthy’s scenic design represents the Lafayette family home in all its decaying splendor, and his lights provide some expressive moments of uneasy shadows. The epilogue, which I won’t spoil here, is carefully considered, but makes what Jacobs-Jenkins had so keenly rendered as implicit, more explicit. A bit heavy-handed perhaps, considering that Benny Sato-Ambush’s direction, the crackling cast and Jacobs-Jenkins's winning script provide you with all you need. Check it out before it’s gone! It’s at COCA until the 27th.
APPROPRIATE
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Benny Sato-Ambush
Berges Theatre at COCA (Center of Creative Arts), 6880 Washington Ave.
through Sept. 27 | tickets: $50 - $60
Performances Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7pm, Sundays at 2pm. Student Ticket available to purchase at The Box Office with Student ID $30.
Cast
Franz/Frank: Joel Moses*
River: Maggie Newstead-Adams*
Rhys: Braden Phillips
Toni: Jilanne Marie Klaus
Rachael: Lizi Watt*
Bo: Michael James Reed*
Cassidy: Ainsley Hammond
Ainsley: Aviv Giancola-Poremba
Creative
Scenic and Lighting Designer: Matthew McCarthy
Costume Design: Abby Pastorello
Sound Design: Mary Robinson
Properties Designer & Supervisor: Mikhail Lynn
Fight Design: Shaun Sheley
Production Stage Manager: Britteny Henry*
Assistant Stage Manager: Alexis Coleman
Publicity by: Grayling Holmesa
Technical Director: Ethan Dudenhoeffer
Assistant to the Director, Properties Assistant, Wardrobe Assistant: Nola Buehler
Director of Operations & Production Manager: Zac Grimm
Casting: Carrie Houk, CSA
* Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of
Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
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