Joan Marcus
The title of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ debut, very starry Broadway play (Hayes Theater, booking to March 3, 2024) takes in the two dictionary definitions of the word “Appropriate,” when that word is said differently. Both are central to the play, which won the Obie for Best New American Play (along with An Octoroon) in 2014, when both plays were off-Broadway. One definition is “what is suitable or fitting for a particular purpose, person, occasion, etc.” The other is “to take without permission or consent; seize; expropriate; to steal, especially to commit petty theft.”
This is also a play, directed by Lila Neugebauer, of interweaving layers and intentions: a raucous, argument-filled family drama meets comedy, and a pointed indictment of racism meets ghost story. There are no visible ghosts, but the past vibrates meaningfully in each scene. As the lights darken at the beginning of the play, and between scenes, the cacophonous sound of cicadas fills the theater—like, really fills it, as if there is no escape from them (Bray Poor and Will Pickens have designed this creepy wall of sound).
In front of us first, in the middle of the night, is the darkened living room of the former plantation home of the Lafayette family in southeast Arkansas. Jammying open a window, Franz (Michael Esper), who is feverishly focused on atonement, and his partner River (Elle Fanning—hippy, but not so dippy it turns out) gain entry into a room that, when light eventually illuminates the gloam, is piled high with clutter (the excellent design is by dots). Outside are two cemeteries—one for the Lafayette ancestors; the other for their slaves.