| THE COMEUPPANCE Last Night | |
| Last Edit: sergius 08:14 am EDT 06/03/23 | |
| Posted by: sergius 08:09 am EDT 06/03/23 | |
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| As Covid recedes, it may be a challenge to remember it happened. Collective traumas seem to be never forgotten or barely remembered. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins makes Covid central to his mediation on mortality and (too) many other things. THE COMEUPPANCE is admirably, and unsurprisingly, ambitious. Jacobs-Jenkins takes a familiar genre, the reunion play, and tilts it toward the white light: reunions are, among other things, occasions to remember how close, always how close, we are towards death. The last time for any experience never announces itself. To varying degrees, the celebrants here are killjoys too; while they laugh and tangle over their pasts, a silent, sudden darkness gathers at their feet. So THE COMEUPPANCE isn’t thematically cheery. And if it’s overlong—easily by a half hour—it’s very smart and often very funny. The characters here, “multi-ethic rejects,” are tender and poignant; they’re pained by history, personal and historical, and poleaxed by the end of youthful promise. An old story, yes, but the same story still amazes with its sameness. Jacobs-Jenkins asks: why are we always so surprised to be confused? He feints at too many answers, but it’s a good question. | |
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