"Purpose" a great play about a great, big flawed family

Leo Tolstoy wrote a sentence that certainly applies to theater. “Happy families are all alike,” he wrote. “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." The same could be said of functional and dysfunctional families. It’s the dysfunction that is interesting and it’s the difficulties that are dramatic. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins in “Purpose” gives us a famous black family that is at once high functioning, including a father who is a famous politician. But it is also a highly dysfunctional family, full of sniping, some shouting and a lot of struggle including some financial crimes as well as a young, likeable narrator to guide us through the perils of a modern, mixed up world.

The Jaspers are described as “living history,” although we also are told that history is "definitely a dead thing." Images of Martin Luther King as a reminder of the Civil Rights struggle adorn the set like the shadows of great black men who have gone before. This is a more frail and flawed version of greatness or, at least, fame. The Jaspers each bring their difficulties, their drama and humor, but most of all, their humanity. “Purpose” is about family, transcending the problems its characters face, a play about people, not just plot, where a lot of the fun is watching people relate to one another, reminding us of the flaws in our own family. The humanity is at once funny and moving. You might not vote for the Jaspers, but you’re likely to enjoy time listening to them. And you might vote that together the family, play and production are worthy of a Tony or two.

Written beautifully with monologues like musical interludes and fluidly directed by Phylicia Rashad, "Purpose" is a Tony-worthy look at family dynamics, mixing emotion and eloquence, where each character has his or her troubles, frailties, passions and sins. LaTanya Richardson Jackson is funny and touching as an overbearing mother insisting that people abide by her wishes on her “birthday.” All she wants is a few grandchildren. When Nazareth (Jon Michael Hill), our narrator, brings Aziza, (Kara Young) home, we find out she isn’t just another guest. He has a very special arrangement with his guest which will start the wheels of the plot spinning, and lead to concerns, actions and reactions.

He hasn’t told her who he is, so she's unaware of his famous family. When she finds out, she is at once impressed and startled. It’s a family that has fallen a bit from the gandeur of MLK in a world of LOL. Latanya Richardson Jackson immediately springs into action, thinking of ways to protect her brood legally from anything related to this guest. Glenn Davis as Solomon or Junior Jasper, the "black sheep" of the family, has gotten in some trouble, further tarnishing the family name. Henry Lennix as Solomon Sr. is upset with how his name has fallen as a flawed father worthy of “Fences,” bringing gravity, a Shakespearean kind of king in a changing world where kings aren't welcome. His voice has the power, grandeur and candeur of James Earl Jones. There is music in that tone. When he plays the piano, we realize his voice itself has been an imposing instrument all along. Yet if he is not Martin Luther King, he is a kind of King Lear, succumbing to honesty, humanity and his own shortcomings. All the flaws are here, and they all come out at dinner when everyone expresses their feelings, often in cruel, sometimes comic ways.

Those who do not learn from history don’t only repeat it, they relive it. At least that seems to be one of the many points here. When Kara Young as Aziza is told about Adam Clayton Powell, she is asked if she knows him. She knows Adam Clayton Powell  Boulevard. In this family, the famous names are people they know, even if to others, especially younger people, they are the names of roads. When we hear about a man who brought innovation to peanuts, we know it’s George Washington Carver. He accomplished so much, but has been reduced to a caricature.  Lennix says, “Time has turned him into the peanut man.” He’s aware of the lost grandeur of great men who like ghosts haunt this house. The Jaspers may not be great, but they make for great theater. They stand on the shoulders of great men and women. But standing on someone's shoulders doesn't make you taller. It just makes you a bigger target. This is a public family who, during the show, lets us see their warts and worse, their private life. And we have to like them for their honesty, in the end, as they express themselves. When there is a slap, it is dramatic, because these are such verbal people. Words finally fail and they let physical violence in for a moment, a reminder that, at our core, we are physical as well as verbal creatures.

Jackson at one point says, “I’m trying to keep these boys alive. This whole world is trying to destroy them. I’m trying to keep them whole." She calls them "boys," although they are men, but she remains their mother. The father may be in charge of the world, but the mother is in charge of the family, which is real, while the world is what lurks outside the window. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play “Appropriate” follows a family who reunites at home, including a drama ignited in part by a visitor. These, in that sense, are sister plays. “Purpose” has that in common structurally. But Jacobs-Jenkins does such a great job showing us a family’s dynamics that any similarities are, well, coincidental.

The Jaspers are at once sui generis and universal, including sibling rivalry and a father who proclaims a need for “truth,” eventually revealing some things that haven't necessarily been in the news. The mother is the hand tht rocks the cradle and stops the world from rocking the boat. No playwright does a better job showing us family, mixing poetry, comedy and humanity. The rhythms are right, the emotions are real, the people are heartfelt, not just aspects of a larger plot, but each the sun in their own startling universe. This is a uniformly good cast that provokes repeated cheers from the audience when characters speak up.

Todd Rosenthal’s set shows us the picture of success, with a sweeping staircase and a living room that is filled with luxury. This is a successful family, but the play strips away the success to reveal struggle. We see generations clash, a larger than life father rail at reality and confess his own frailty. It’s probably true that this is the best play on Broadway now and it’s certainly great to see a play, not a musical, packing in crowds. If you liked “Appropriate,” and I did, you’ll love “Purpose.” It’s not really about any one thing or any one plot, other than family itself and the way we all fall short. Every family has its own dramas and difficulties. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins gives us family the way Shakespeare gives us royalty and Miller gives us fathers and sons. He shows us passionate people clashing. When Aziza at the end decides this family might not be the best source of sperm, it’s a judgment on the family, but also a recognition of their reality. They are not a painting or a poster, but people. They may be famous, but they are more than flawed. They are many things. Martin Luther King, they are not. But there are plenty of great monologues here that are likely to light up auditions for years to come. Good writing, good story and good acting make for good theater. Life itself tends to go by too quickly. The same could be said of “Purpose.”

We are left wondering what happens to everyone, but they all seem real and relevant. While the Jaspers are a black family, they are a family first and any family will see fragments of themselves in it, the protective mother, the powerful father, the flawed sons, the daughter in law struggling to be heard. We hear about talk of writing a tell all book for money. That's never explored in depth, but the play never becomes about any single plot. When I left, I left thinking not just about this play, but my own family. You will likely see fragments of your own family reflected in the lens of the Jasper family. And a very theatrical family it is.

Glenn Davis as Junior says he is and feels sick, while his father says he's just using disease to attract attention. Both are probably accurate. Sickness is a sign of living and of life. Remember Tolstoy? We are all flawed, lucky to be alive. And the Jaspers truly come to life on stage. There are many reasons that audiences give standing ovations. The best reason is that they have just seen theater come to life and they want to do more than applaud and pay for their ticket. There was a standing ovation at the end of “Purpose.” Part of it was for the playwright, part for the cast, but part also was for the Jasper family, as flawed as they may be, providing a truly theatrical, emotional and wonderful spectacle to watch.