A Squabbling Family Kept in the Dark. In ‘Appropriate,’ Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Subverts Tradition
Ben BrantleyMarch 16, 2014: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins admits he is a thief. This is a refreshing and useful confession. For as you watch Appropriate — his very fine, subversively original new play at the Pershing Square Signature Center — you’re sure to find yourself thinking of a host of literary antecedents for this seemingly traditional family melodrama. From the first scene, in which a road-weary young couple’s spooky entrance into a derelict house summons the opening of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins’s story of one unhappy clan’s reunion in the shadow of death suggests a century-spanning anthology of similarly themed classics. Once again, we are faced with a flock of dissatisfied relatives, flown back to the old homestead for one last angry feast of guilt and recrimination.
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