Review: THE COMEUPPANCE at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Themes of identity, bonding, loss, self-realization and especially death permeate the numerous layers of Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’ thought-provoking play The Comeuppance. This penetrating work explores so many layers that it is best to let the experience take you where it will. The high school reunion of five characters (with a sixth character often referred to and heard on a cell phone) based on experiences of the playwright himself (who grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland) has a distinct, edgy feeling as this group of millennials celebrate, banter, reminisce, self-analyze, and even ridicule each other with equal doses of affection and recrimination.

This production, which is a co-production of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and the Wilma Theater (which recently won the Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre Tony Award) is an illuminating spin on the variegations of the iconoclastic human spirit when differing personalities attempt to reconcile and celebrate what they remember as a group years ago. (In this play, the group that is reuniting is MERGE or the Multi-Ethnic Reject Group).

A nod to author Thomas Wolfe is appropriate for this audacious play truly shows that “you can’t go home again.” Although these characters try to bring back the joy of the good times when they reunite at their reunion --- ruminations, regrets and self-realizations morph, merge, collide and explode ----yes, folks, this is truly a very modern play in the sense that contradictions and questions abound.

Director Morgan Green superbly manages the various absorbing monologues with a tensile strength as the characters share their innermost thoughts. Death, mortality, and all it affects is paramount in the monologues and is uncannily interwoven with subject matter such as blindness, war, Covid, PTSD, and epilepsy. This is all leavened with doses of communal humor, celebration, physical affection, and practical jokes/sarcastic humor (that often turns serious, however).

The “dance of death” often becomes a euphoric dance of joy in this engrossing production. This “dance of death” content has a highly directorial equivalent as director Morgan Green portrays the cast taking highly choreographed and visceral/physical jabs at each other into thin air (to mimic undercurrents of rage and sporting with each other’s feelings) under the forced pretense of having a marvelous, fun reunion replete with the stimulants of booze/ “jungle juice” and drugs.

Ms. Green utilizes every inch of the stage space as if to encompass the many nuances of thought that the characters possess as each one ruminates. Celebratory and/or more overt hostility among these raging and alternately engaging millennials is technically accomplished with almost constant movement (with the aid of fight and intimacy choreographer Eli K. Lynn).

A cinematic style of freezing the characters in mid-motion, while another character might run towards the far corners of the stage or deliver a monologue, made the audience complicit in the character’s soul-searching and reckonings with mortality.

All the cast members are superb, and it is quite impossible to single any actor out from the other; all the actors work as one tightly knit ensemble with each actor hitting their mark with distinctively etched characterizations. A stellar aspect of all the actors is their ability to deliver penetrating, lengthy monologues with utter concentration and depth. Playwright Jacobs -Jenkins has created extraordinarily complex characters that are adjusting to post-pandemic life after the already accrued horrors of Columbine, 9/11, and the Iraq War.

Jordan Bellow’s portrayal of Emilio is multi-layered as he deals with continual comments about his sexuality that he denies. It is interesting that the audience is left to draw their own conclusions.

Alana Raquel Bowers delivers an earthy and honest portrayal of a person who is holding on to each precious moment in life as imminent total blindness approaches.

The character of Kristina, who is worn down by having so many children to care for while holding down a position as a medical anesthesiologist, is beautifully played by Taysha Marie Canales. Ms. Canales combines the comic timing that comes from deep discontent with ease.

The character of Katelyn is performed with an agile and commanding physical presence by Sarah Gliko. Ms. Gliko renders a slyly knowing and aware characterization.

Jaime Maseda as Paco delivers a taut and compelling performance as a character who is suffering from PTSD. Mr. Maseda provides an enigmatic and creative portrayal.

Scenic design by Jian Jung---nice spare set with a black gauzy backdrop that lets the characters emerge as if coming and going from the unconscious or in a dark dreamscape. Vertical bars of thin neon lights are spaced successively as white, then green, then red elongated slim lines of color --–flashing at times for effect.

Lighting design by Minjoo Kim is perfectly suited to the various moods of the play’s content---always subtly interwoven without drawing facile attention to itself.

Costume design by Kitt Crescenzo is well suited to each character’s persona---such as military dress for Kristina, a tailored look for Katelyn, an artistic look for Emilio, and so forth.

There have been other plays and musicals that have been set against the backdrop of a reunion such as Follies, That Championship Season and Heroes of the Fourth Turning but The Comeuppance truly takes us to a new theatrical level in content as well as form. The Comeuppance is a “slice of life” in all its tragic and comedic aspects.

Running Time: Two Hours and twenty minutes with no intermission

The Comeuppance runs through October 6, 2024, at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (in collaboration with the Wilma Theater located in Philadelphia, PA---where the play will move from November 19 to December 8, 2024) located at 641 D Street, NW, 20004.

Note: Harvest Moon Date Night Package: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is offering those who purchase two or more $39 tickets to the 8pm performance of The Comeuppance on Wednesday September 18th two complimentary drink vouchers for that evening as well.

Photo Credit: L-R Sarah Gliko and Jordan Bellow in Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's production of The Comeuppance. Photo by Cameron Whitman Photography.

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