Woolly Mammoth Theatre: The Comeuppance

 Woolly Mammoth is an intimate theatre space in the heart of Penn Quarter in DC.  It's not very close to other theaters, but is very close to a Green Line Metro Stop.  I am used to seeing interesting productions there.  They focus on New American Plays.  Often by playwrights of color.  "The Comeuppance," by Tony Award winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, was all of these things.

Set on a front porch somewhere in Prince Georges County Maryland on the evening of the 20th class reunion at a local parochial High School.  Five members of a group of misfit friends plan to meet at the home of one member and then take a limo to the reunion in homage to all the proms from those long ago years.  Immediately, one friend bails (the one who organized the evening).  Later, another friend surprises the remaining three by bringing her cousin along.  An Iraq war veteran with a sordid romantic history with another member of the crew. 

Jacob-Jenkins write this like he'll never get to write another play again packing it brim to over flowing with questions around: Politics, Healthcare, Substance Abuse, Date Rape, Miscarriage and Infertility, Sexual Orientation, Gun Violence, Disabilities, Inter-generational Marriage, Social Media, Artificial Intelligence, and above mortality.  Throughout the 2 1/2 hours, at various points, all five of the characters assume the persona of Death.  What is clear, if that Death is there on business.  One of them will die.  Like a netting covering everything are constant questions of memory and change.  Do we trust what we thought was true?  Do we need to prosecute the past in order to redeem the future?  How do we find meaning in the present when the past clings like decaying flesh to our hearts?  There is a LOT of there, there!

The production is co-produced with WILMA Theatre out of Philadelphia.  Which I really loved, because I know next to nothing about the theatre scene in Philadelphia.  I've got Baltimore locked down, but Philadelphia?  Nada.  The five actors were all engaging and brought a range of chemistry to and between their characters.  To a person, they were more compelling in the moments when everything freeze-framed and they stepped out of the action to speak as Death.  Because it was consistent across the board, I would say that was the result of good direction, and loose writing.  The play didn't need to be 2.5 hours long.  

Ursula (Alana Raquel Bowers), the host of the evening, owner of the porch.

Katelyn (Sarah Gliko) and Emilio (Jordan Bellow) reminiscing. 

Katelyn, Ursula, Emilio and Kristina (Taysha Marie Canales)

Kristina in the persona of Death on the floor with Francisco (Paco) (Jaime Maseda) who is having a seizure.

Frenzied dancing: Kristina, Paco, Katelyn and Ursula

Paco in the persona of Death.