Theatre Review: The Comeuppance, The Almeida Theatre

Yolanda Kettle, Tamara Lawrance, Katie Leung and Anthony Welsh in The Comeuppance. Image by Marc Brenner

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The age of bad choices reeking their consequences

Acclaimed U.S. playwright, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins wrote a play about a High school reunion, only to leave it in a drawer unfinished, feeling uninspired and frustrated he couldn’t make it work. Fast forward a decade and the same play has had a successful tour on Broadway and is now enjoying a run at the prestigious Almeida theatre in London. The play centers around a 20 year high school reunion, where a bunch of self-proclaimed ‘misfit’s’, now 40 something year-olds who trust they have long since moved on from their High school days soon discover they are haunted by many of the issues which faced them during their teenage years. U.S. Director Eric Ting directs a UK cast of Yolanda Kettle, Ferdinand Kingsley, Tamara Lawrance, Katie Leung and Anthony Welsh.

The play runs for two hours with no interval which is effective in sustaining momentum and allows the audience to be held both physically and metaphorically in the same space and time as the characters. The entirety of the play is set on Ursula’s (Lawrance) front porch, where the affectionately named MERGE (multi-ethnic reject group) once enjoyed pre-drinks in anticipation of their senior prom. On the surface the play is nostalgic, fun, quick-witted and at times sentimental, however beneath the surface lies a much darker tale. The main characters are joined on stage by an otherworldly presence, death itself. Death speaks directly to the audience throughout and uses it’s central characters as a mouthpiece. The embodiment of the characters is successful in conveying the message that death is everywhere, it’s in the minds of our ensemble cast, in the corners and crevices of Ursula’s residence, in the air, in the trees and bushes surrounding her home. Death awaits us all, it is inescapable. The darkness surrounding Ursula’s home and use of spotlights further adds to this feeling of something lurking just out of view, a watcher, if you will.

Jenkins is a fantastic writer and the piece certainly has a lot to say for itself. Death, politics, the economy, morality, isolation, consent, are all central themes. The staging and lighting make the play feel more intimate, personal, the story feels connected to the writer’s past, maybe even his present. The class hail from St Anthony’s Catholic school in D.C. where Jenkins grew up. When Caitlin (Kettle) quips about the events of January 6th and storming the White House, it reminded me of a recent Jenkins interview in The Standard where he remarked that growing up in D.C was strange, “it’s a company town, and the company is politics.” The theme of death and the ‘danse macabre’ is reflected in the characters talk of the pandemic or ‘plague’. As an audience we are all too familiar with the impact Covid-19 had on society and the great many people who lost their lives to it. Death loomed larger than ever during this period. The play, at times, feels like a re-emergence, it’s characters rising from the ashes of this dark period and trying to rebuild past lives and friendships, but have lost a part of themselves along the way.

Ursula (Lawrance) has faced the greatest hardship during the pandemic; losing her grandmother whom she cared for and her sight from diabetes. She is the one who, ironically,  see’s the world and her friends with the most clarity, see’s who they still are and is a mirror to everyone. It’s a stellar cast and Lawrance and Walsh do a particularly good job at connecting with the audience on a deeper level. There is a particuarly touching scene between Emilio (Walsh) and Ursula (Lawrance) where Emilio takes Ursula on a sensory tour of one of his exhibits. Sound is incredibly symbolic here and a chilling reminder that death is inescapable.

Isolation is another strong theme and it’s apparent how alone each of the characters are when they reminisce about the pandemic. Caitlin (Kettle) has lost her husband to internet conspiracies, Emilio (Walsh) is missing a partner to share his life with, Ursula (Lawrance) has lost her beloved grandmother and her sight. Her friends fear she will become a ‘shutin’, already reticent about going out, she fights valiantly not to attend the reunion for fear of what others might think and/or say but eventually acquiesces to the will of the group. Paco (Kinglsey) suffers with PTSD after his time in Iraq and is plagued by it’s nightmares and finally Kristina (Leung) has turned to alcohol as an escape from her personal life and work stresses.

Notalgia is present from the moment the audience enter the theatre, we are treated to an assortment of early noughties R&B classics. There is a sense of this play being a meditation on millennial angst. Emilio (Walsh) reflects on all that they have been through since their school years, the Columbine attacks, 9/11, wars, a financial crisis, a pandemic..but rather than lament on how tough us millennials have had it, Jenkins offers a satisfyingly fresh twist by also reflecting on just how hard our parents and grandparents had it, they went through the same difficulties and more – this part feels uplifting and also grounding. Death addresses the audience and speaks of the kindness shown to others during the pandemic, Death asks what have we become since? This is a time for reflection, the audience assumes this part is designed to sting, it’s personal and we can no longer hide behind the characters. Jenkins feels we are less empathetic and more self-absorbed now, that many of us were better humans then.

In a recent interview, Jenkins remarked that he didn’t see the point in writing anything subtle, his goal is to make the audience stop and think, reflect on what has been said and converse with others about it. I certainly think he succeeded in crafting a hugely entertaining play about normalcy but one which also tackles some of the biggest issues we face as human beings and at it’s core, our own morality.