Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose Is Messy, Sharp, and Painfully Human

When you start getting the hang of this play-seeing/reviewing thing, you begin to grasp the styles of different playwrights. Out of the many playwrights whose work I have seen, I think Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is probably the one I’ve experienced the most. He and William Shakespeare lol. So walking into La Jolla Playhouse’s West Coast premiere of the Tony Award-winning play Purpose, I already knew I was about to get layers, discomfort, and sharp humor.