The Tony Award-winning play makes its West Coast premiere with layered performances and intentional direction
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.
The story takes place in Chicago, inside the beautiful home of the Jasper family. “Naz,” short for Nazareth (Matthew Elijah Webb), is the youngest of two brothers and a photographer based in New York. He is private and observant, and he mostly keeps to himself. He has also recently agreed to help his former neighbor, Aziza (Andréa Agosto), get pregnant. The Jaspers are a conservative and highly respected family, led by patriarch Solomon Jasper (Cornell Womack), a world-famous retired pastor and cultural leader, alongside his wife Claudine (Stephanie Berry), a non-practicing lawyer.
Naz returns home to celebrate his brother “Junior” (Sean Boyce Johnson) and, apparently, Claudine’s birthday. But as a snowstorm approaches and Aziza ends up staying the night instead of driving back for safety, tensions begin to simmer during dinner. Junior’s wife, Morgan (Crystal Dickinson), who has been indisposed in the guest bedroom, finally comes downstairs and decides to share a few thoughts. From there, the cookie-cutter image of this family starts crumbling piece by piece.
Jacobs-Jenkins’ writing style is layered, peeling back dialogue after dialogue until the audience is left staring directly at the rawest parts of these characters. The conversations feel personable and familiar while also being shocking in the most “wait… did they really just say that?” kind of way. It somehow balances humor, discomfort, family trauma, religion, ego, and identity without ever feeling forced.
Pairing this script with Delicia Turner Sonnenberg’s direction is honestly a win. Her direction is intentional in every movement, pause, and interaction. Each character develops their own mindset and emotional rhythm through the dialogue, which helps the audience understand not only where they are coming from individually, but also how deeply intertwined this family dynamic really is.
Visually, the production is stunning. Lawrence E. Moten III’s set design is breathtaking, centered around a staircase with the living room on house left and the dining area on house right. What caught my attention was the use of blue tones throughout the set. With some blue furniture and even the actors wearing something blue, the atmosphere is blue, and Sherrice Mojgani’s lighting design also carries subtle blue tints. These creative choices deepen the feeling of the incoming snowstorm, the emotional storm brewing within the family, and all the skeletons hiding in that elegant closet. Add Lindsay Jones’ original music and sound design, and every chilling or gasping moment lands even harder.
Matthew Elijah Webb also acts as a narrator throughout much of the play, interacting directly with the audience while balancing Naz’s introverted yet deeply creative personality. Andréa Agosto’s Aziza is vibrant, colorful, and exciting. Aziza almost becomes one of us in the audience — an outsider looking into the complicated machine that is the Jasper family. Agosto conveys that flawlessly.
Crystal Dickinson as Morgan is an absolute checkmate on that stage. From quietly reading a book while everyone spirals around her to casually eating cake while verbally destroying someone, Dickinson completely slayed. Sean Boyce Johnson as Junior fully embodies Jacobs-Jenkins’ style of peeling away layers until all that remains is a raw, flawed human being. Johnson portrays that unraveling beautifully and painfully at the same time.
And then there are the parents. Stephanie Berry and Cornell Womack are a total masterclass. The diction, timing, and pacing — wow. Berry holds tightly onto Claudine’s emotional depth and exhaustion, while Womack recites the dense, wordy dialogue like someone whistling a song: smooth, uninterrupted, and completely controlled. The tone he carries throughout is incredible.
The costumes by Samantha C. Jones lean more detailed for the men, using sweaters, layered shirts, and accessories to help define personality, while the women’s styling feels more casual and lived-in. Alberto Albee Alvarado’s wigs beautifully and naturally round out the female characters.
Purpose is one of those plays that slowly invites you into a family gathering and then traps you at the table while generations of hurt, expectation, hypocrisy, love, and truth explode in front of you. Messy, layered, uncomfortable, funny, and painfully human — the duration is two hours and fifty minutes. You will be gripping the edge of your seat, so time will only be a mere construction.
Currently playing until June 7.
The Stage Manager for this play is Heather M. Brose, and Alexa Burn is the Assistant Stage Manager.
