‘Purpose’ Review: In Broadway Directorial Debut, Phylicia Rashad Deftly Teases Out Caustic Portrait of Black Political Dynasty
8 / 10
Purpose might surprise Jacobs-Jenkins diehards in its relatively straightforward melodramatic structure and earnest undercurrents, but the language inspires and, as one character says, “really works its way inside you.” As the weekend unravels, taking wild turns that neither Nazareth nor Aziza could have imagined, the way the Jaspers talk to each other and about themselves becomes more heartbreaking. Their terse exchanges and angry tirades are searching, almost desperate pleas for direction and mutual understanding. They sound like monologues at the end of The Comeuppance, when audiences commune with death and, in the midst of a pandemic, grapple with what it means to die. In Purpose, Jacobs-Jenkins asks us to confront what it means to live.
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