Appropriate, Seattle Rep

Remember that play where family gets together and old secrets and grievances come up and everyone involved loses it?  This play plot that mines family drama to speak to cultural issues may be common, but when done well, it’s great theater.

Appropriate was my most anticipated play from this year’s Rep season. Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins work has back-to-back Tony wins for Appropriate in 2024 and Purpose in 2025. I was seated and ready to finally see one of his plays.

Appropriate is a long show, but it hooked me from the beginning and kept me riveted throughout. It starts with a window break into what seems like an abandoned, crumbling, old home. Turns out the Lafayette patriarch has passed and his children have returned to the family home, a Southern antebellum plantation, to settle the estate.

It’s clear from the beginning  that exiled-son Franz has secrets in his messy past, severe secrets that may change how we see him. Oldest sister Toni comes in hot from the start: She has grievances. Middle brother Bo seems more chill, but it’s clear he’s struggling under responsibility.

When unsettling  items are found in the house, the family are thrown in different ways, unable to reconcile the item with the father they loved.

At times, the family’s struggles and fights can be hard to watch: it’s real. And as a viewer, from the safety of our seat, it’s easy to wonder why they are struggling to see the obvious and do the right thing. It’s easy to have moral clarity from a distance.

These are people are not awful, but they aren’t good people either. And you have to wonder if the decaying, old house is bringing out the absolute worst in each.  The show kept me engaged right up until the end, where I have my only complaint. The ending felt unsatisfying, if absolutely true to life. Sometimes life isn’t tidy, and you just have to move on.