Purpose, a Steppenwolf Theatre Production @ The Hayes Theater

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The Play: Purpose; the family of a Jesse Jackson-style civil rights leader comes together for one pivotal day that is filled with comedy, tragedy and reckonings with the heavy legacies passed from one generation to the next 

Written by: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins        Directed by: Phylicia Rashad

One good thing: The crackerjack cast—which includes LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Kara Young, Glenn Davis and a very charismatic Jon Michael Hill—is firing so surely on all cylinders that even the clichés of the dysfunctional family genre hit with a satisfying pop

One not-so-great thing: I wish the play, or maybe the direction, had dug even deeper into how the burdens placed on the families of self-sacrificing leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson have lead to tragic outcomes for so many of their children and even grandchildren

 

 


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