What did I tell you about Second Stage? They’ve had a golden streak in family dramas. And even though it’s not exactly produced by them, it still goes to show that their home base at the Hayes has made these stories triumphant! Once again it’s been deemed victorious for “Purpose,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ searing, biting, and uncomfortably humorous new work following his success from “Appropriate.”
This is not just a typical familial stage story where tensions boil in tight quarters and secrets are exposed with each peck of wood; it's also a story about legacy and the burdens that come from it, especially when individuals have veered away from it or allowed it to slip through their grasp. It even goes as far as to show how much those innocent standing right next to the those within a legacy are affected and forced to suffer because of it. No one is safe when it comes to the central Jasper family, and matriarch Claudine (a wildly manipulative/lawyer-savvy LaTanya Richardson Jackson) is the one who’ll tell you when you step into in her office.
The pangs of burden, preservation, aloofness, denial, familial pressure, deep-seated hostility, and little-to-no remorse only for it to fully come a bit too late echo like the bells of Notre Dame, and much like “Appropriate,” Jacobs-Jenkins does not hold back, and neither does it do so in Phylicia Rashad’s small-but-mighty staging. Rashad gives just the right touch in tension elevations and needed levity, and can navigate the highs and lows of any scene she’s given with what looks like great ease (although offstage that can’t be true).
I will say, in a writing sense, I could’ve gone without the narration bits as it feels like a story that should just keep moving without a pause for direct address, and maybe one specific character shouldn’t have been “redeemed” in the end just like that, but then again, what play, even if it is magnificent, doesn’t have its flaws?
The storytelling even comes exceedingly well in Todd Rosenthal’s exquisitely modern set, Dede Ayite’s character-defining costumes, and Amith Chandrashaker’s slick and atmospheric lighting; that’s a first for me to notice in a while now, so this team’s definitely doing something right.
And let’s also not forget how stacked this ensemble cast is and how much they’ve brought to the Jasper dinner table. In addition to Jackson, you’ve got Tony Winner Kara Young keeps on giving us that golden touch in any performance she gives, the commanding-yet-teetering patriarch presence given by Harry Lennix, two different yet incredibly vulnerable performances of marriage-on-the-rocks given by Glenn Davis and Alana Arenas, and a more mellow but wonderfully nuanced take on reclusiveness and maybe something else (can’t give anything away here) by our guide through the whole of it: Jon Michael Hill.
Yes, there is much to admire here when it comes “Purpose.” It’s a tale chock full of conflict character dynamics, and relevant themes that will leave you literally on the edge of your seat, but will also give you the reaffirming hope that original storytelling is not a dying art form; it’s still alive and thriving. So thank you Branden Jacobs-Jenkins for this reassurance!
