PicksInSix Review: PURPOSE - Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf’s Sterling “PURPOSE” Examines Family Dynamic.
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton
“I need to find my path again…” Thus spoke the Jasper family patriarch Solomon “Sonny” Jasper at the end of a challenging evening of family dynamic and self-examination. Every character in this sterling production of “PURPOSE,” now playing at Steppenwolf Theatre through April 28 in the Downstairs Theater, hits a point in their lives on this particular day where each could utter these same words. And the marvelous playwright Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins has seen to it that the audience has plenty of emotional and intellectual subject matter to chew on vigorously. I love a play that makes its viewers think in the moment, as it moves along its storytelling.
Indeed, the title is the rudder that pushes this piece forward. We begin with an appearance by the youngest family member, Naz (our narrator and chief character focus in the play done in wondrous, properly questioning tones by Jon Michael Hill), whom we find has completed a trip to the Canadian wilderness in his newly-found avocation as nature photographer. He’s left the divinity school that Sonny (Harry Lennix in a strong, dominant gait and attitude) has so wanted for that son, because his calling seems different. Meanwhile, his older brother Solomon Jr. (where Glenn Davis fully shines with who is arguably the most problem-laden character in the play) has just been released from prison for embezzlement and trying to find his way again. In the meantime, Junior’s wife Morgan (an almost unrecognizable Alana Arenas, full of proper anger and consternation at a family so totally aware of its public image), is about to serve time herself for tax evasion.
In the midst of all this is the mother figure Claudine (Tamara Tunie is a real wonder here as she expertly offers a matriarch with hugely enabling responsibilities), whose awareness of the family’s public persona is always on guard and on point. She and the entire clan are surprised at the arrival in the middle of a snowstorm by Naz’s friend Aziza (Ayanna Bria Bakari in a generous and altogether charming portrayal), whose presence is necessary because she and Naz have haphazardly tried to help her have a baby, her own unique search for peace and purpose.
Every character in the play eventually finds a point where that wall of ‘purpose’ is prepared for the scaling. Jacobs-Jenkins knows his as a playwright, having assembled these characters in an almost epic-telling that ranks with the best this writer has witnessed in recent years. Director Phylicia Rashad has helped map out the paths walked by these characters with genuine care and affection. It is unmistakable that this play is an authentic comparison with the accomplished and colorful family of Jesse Jackson. Rashad helps us care deeply about the Jasper family, even in the middle of all the emotional chaos, with loving and gentle strokes. This production only enhances the Steppenwolf mystique as the American template for ensemble theatrical presentation.
“PURPOSE” brought to mind one of my favorite quotes. From the pen of American author/poet Stephen Crane:
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
Hence, the search for one’s own purpose. And we all get to be a part of it.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com
PHOTO: Michael Brosilow
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
presents
Downstairs Theater
1650 N. Halsted St.
EXTENDED
through May 12, 2024
(312) 335-1650
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