The Broadway Theatre Review: Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Purpose
By Ross
There is a slow buzz swarming around the Helen Hayes Theater, and the feeling of tension and a certain kind of stinging danger fills the air. There’s a warning given by our guide, the ‘weird son,” and even though it comes about halfway through Act One, we feel the edge of it throughout. “Buckle up,” he tells us, over his shoulder, as they all sit down for a meal at a round debate table pretending to be for dining. We take the note and brace ourselves as Steppenwolf Theatre Company‘s production of Purpose, the new, deliciously sharp play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate), gathers itself together for the impending storm that is brewing outside, and inside that well-heeled home, designed to perfection by Todd Rosenthal (Broadway’s Eureka Day). The storm between family members feels far more dangerous than the snowstorm outside. That one, we feel safely sheltered from, but I’m not sure I would have stayed if I had the choice between this familial gathering or risk the stormy, ice-covered roads on a drive back home.
Directed with the sharpest of eyes by Phylicia Rashad (Signature’s Our Lady of 121st Street), this unpacking at the hands of our narrator, the young photographer Nazareth, masterfully embodied by Jon Michael Hill (Broadway’s Pass Over), is consistently compelling and intense, especially the entwinning first act of this almost three-hour play. We can’t look away, especially when Hill’s “Naz” speaks directly to us, in pockets of light, held tight by designer Amith Chandrashaker (Broadway’s Prayer for the French Republic). Aided by a strong sound design by Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen (Broadway’s Sweat), the gathering is a full-on experience, delving into ideas around faith, legacy and identity within black culture, and as it is inspired by the scandal that swirled around Jesse Jackson’s family, Purpose invites us into the fictional, influential Jasper family, who stand in pride of what they once were, to understand the fallout and their framing of it all. And over the course of this one night, much will be upended and the legacy of this family will never be the same.
Naz has returned home for a pseudo-birthday celebration for his mother, Claudine Jasper, disturbingly embodied by LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway), not taking place on her actual birthday. It’s been reorganized by Naz’s politician brother, Solomon “Junior” Jasper, tightly portrayed by Glenn Davis (PH’s Downstate), as a symbolic gesture with an angle and a purpose to coincide with his return. You see, Junior has just been released from prison for embezzlement and has returned to the familial home to change course. The “King of the Pivot” has a plan, and he wants to unleash it at the dinner table for the validation of both his mother and his father, the honourable pastor and Civil Rights icon, Solomon “Sonny” Jasper, portrayed forcibly by Harry Lennix (Broadway’s Radio Golf). There’s probably no way that this evening was going to go as Junior planned, but when the asexual Naz inadvertently brings home a female friend and possible secret baby mama (through the turkey baster method), Aziza Houston, fascinatingly well-played by Kara Young (Broadway’s Purlie Victorious; Cost of Living), the storm that was already brewing just went up a few categories into a full fledged shit show hurricane, where destruction and displacement is imminent, regardless of how well you can pivot and preach.
Young’s Aziza is utterly captivating as she unwinds herself while also becoming increasingly starstruck-wound in by the black history illuminati of the Jasper family. She is in awe of Naz’s parents, overstepping her welcome and becoming absolutely charmed enough to remain, even when Naz clearly wants her to leave and head back home to NYC. He knows his family is going to ride all this to a higher level of being, opening a door to a windstorm of critical judgment and wrongful presumptions. And then Aziza starts to overshare, about her Queerness and, in a rash moment of protective care, the reason she is even here with Naz. That’s the last straw that cracks this rose-colored wall’s back, and when Junior’s wife, Morgan Jasper, powerfully portrayed by Alana Arenas (Off-Broadway’s The Bluest Eye), finally stands up at the dinner table to say her peace, a speech that she’s been keeping hidden behind dark sunglasses until then, the tornado of all tornados has finally made touchdown with a slap that resonates far beyond the dining table.
Morgan is the one I connected to, almost from the moment she started claiming her space. She knows the score before Aziza even begins to play the game against all the manipulation and lawyering of that Mother Jasper. In the moment when it is clear that the beehive has been uprooted; defrauded and disbarred, there is no turning back for anyone in that room, and no more being dazzled by the black righteous heroes of this glorified family. The family brand, at least for Aziza, who knew no better, has been permanently torn from the walls and signed away. She, but maybe more Morgan, are my heroes of the hour, standing up to the sickening manipulation of the mother and the too-proud preaching of the father, who must win all debates at his table or he will uproot the event. Costumed solidly by Dede Ayite (Broadway’s Our Town), this crew of actors finds endless depth to dive into in a sea of well-crafted scenes and family dynamics, laid out authentically and deliciously by Jacobs-Jenkins in his masterful, insightful play. It probably could use a slight trimming, especially in the monologues spoken directly to the audience by the fantastic Hill, as Claudine’s weird son, Nazareth, but the buzzing purpose behind Purpose is clear and true, and the language carries a new era of truth and drama onto the Broadway stage. For that, we can be eternally grateful.
