When an actor strolls onstage in the opening scene and immediately starts soliloquizing in an electronically altered, Darth Vader-ish voice, it’s tempting to assume that we’re being thrust into the sci-fi/horror zone. But no: After rattling off his many aliases across the centuries and continents (Anubis, et al.: “You may call me … Death”), Emilio – Caleb Eberhardt, confidently urbane — pops seamlessly into normal life, or what we generally take to be normal.
In Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ brilliant script for The Comeuppance — a worthy successor to standouts like Gloria and An Octoroon, now enjoying its world premiere at the Signature Center’s Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre — Emilio and former classmate Ursula (Brittany Bradford) are hanging out on her homey porch in a D.C. suburb. (Arnulfo Maldonado supplies the smart, compact set; Amith Chandrashaker the atmospheric lighting.) They’re awaiting the arrival of a few more friends before heading off to their 20th high-school reunion. One of the late arrivals has ordered a limo as a kind of retro meta-joke.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
Three fellow alums trickle in. All but one are former members of a outsider clique that called itself “M.E.R.G.E.” (for “Multi-Ethnic Reject Group Experience”). Over the course of 130 intermission-less but riveting minutes, their entwined back stories will be picked apart, thread by thread. Who was what to whom back then? Who abandoned their youthful dreams, and who has since fulfilled them?
Emilio appears to have not only met his goals but surpassed them. An aspiring photographer turned sound-art superstar, he’s en route to Manhattan for “the Biennial” (at the Whitney, it goes without saying); a five-month-old baby and a partner — initially left vague — await him back home in Berlin. Ursula, whose black eyepatch goes unexplained until the very end, tirelessly touts Emilio’s accomplishments (she Googled him), but their cohorts remain oblivious and unimpressed.
Hyper-achiever Kristina (Shannon Tyo) is busy bragging about her own status as a Navy anesthesiologist and mother to what, in her cups, she describes as “a whole army of Baby Catholics.” Her schedule is so punishing, it includes a maladaptive coping mechanism: black-out drinking — a source of some consternation for bubbly former classmate Caitlin (Susannah Flood), whose own marriage, involving thwarted attempts at pregnancy, sounds practically unspeakable (she only alludes to it under direct interrogation).
There’s one interloper in the bunch: Kristina’s one-year-older cousin (also Caitlin’s high-school boyfriend), Francisco, nicknamed Paco (Bobby Moreno), who joined the Marines straight out of school and returned from Iraq badly broken. The four ex-M.E.R.G.E. friends enjoy an easy rapport, teasing and taunting, but Francisco’s volume and affect stand out from the start as awkward, disproportionate. It’s telegraphed that at any moment this tagalong — working so hard at fitting in — may be a hair’s-breadth removed from losing it entirely.
Most of the parsed-out revelations — several are exposed by Death, who’s not picky as to which human vessel he chooses as mouthpiece — come across more gradually: they take their time reverberating. Director Eric Ting deftly guides a superb cast, all of whom make the most of their carefully calibrated roles. This reunion — depth-charged like most — unfolds in its own style (blessedly free of cliché) and at its own pace. One guarantee: Those 130 minutes will race by.
The Comeuppance opened June 5, 2023, at Signature Center and runs through June 25. Tickets and information: signaturetheatre.org
