Imagine the members of a dysfunctional family in some Tennessee Williams story coming to blows literally as opposed to figuratively, ultimately addressing their deeply rooted conflicts and frustrations by resorting to a ridiculous knock-down, drag-out free-for-all.
So it goes in "Appropriate," which should give you a pretty good idea about the general lack of nuance or subtlety in this play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins — even if you do buy into it as a "dark comedy" (as it's billed) rather than a sordid melodrama (as it develops).
On fairly shaky ground from the outset, and as surely as the dilapidated Southern Gothic plantation house where the action unfolds, artistic director Freddie Ashley's Actor's Express production gradually falls to pieces. Following the death of their Arkansas patriarch, three estranged siblings (with sundry partners and children in tow) gather to clean up the mess, but instead simply generate more of it.
Audiences will be hard pressed to find anyone with whom to identify or sympathize. The sister, Toni (an overly gesticulating Jan Wikstrom, all flailing arms and wagging fingers), is a rhymes-with-witchy bully and possible sociopath. The money-grubbing older brother, Bo (Kevin Stillwell), abandoned her years ago to bear the burden of caring for their ailing father. Long before that, the younger brother, Frank (Bryan Brendle), a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, ran away and dropped out of sight after a scandal involving an underage girl.
The comparatively less objectionable supporting characters include Frank’s girlfriend, River (Alexandra Ficken), a “hippie-dippy” free spirit and part-time vegan chef; Bo’s prim Jewish wife, Rachael (Cynthia Barrett), and their precocious teenage daughter, Cassidy (Devon Hales); and Toni’s son, Rhys (John Osorio), a sullen juvenile delinquent. Ficken and especially Hales are refreshing standouts in the cast, although Brendle has one truly affecting scene in which Frank tearfully apologizes for his past transgressions.
Among many skeletons to emerge from their familial closet, the most compelling of them revolves around the late father. The discovery of an old photo album sheds new light — or, more accurately, casts a shadow — on the “mismatched memories” his surviving relatives have of him, raising questions about his “racist world view” and “generational vocabulary,” and about whether he was a “slave to his upbringing” or just downright psychotic.
That such pertinent issues are basically reduced to an absurd brawl (phony fight choreography by David Sterritt) is an abject disappointment. Equally implausible but considerably more intriguing is the eventual suggestion that the house might be haunted by ghosts from a nearby cemetery, thereby allowing lighting designer Mary Parker and sound designer Preston Goodson to pull out all the stops late in the show — which goes for gifted scenic designers Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay, too.
Its characters may exist in a “state of flux,” but, in more ways than one, “Appropriate” essentially ends up in a state of shambles.
THEATER REVIEW
“Appropriate”
Grade: C+
Through Nov. 20. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. $21-$38. Actor's Express (at King Plow Arts Center), 887 W. Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-607-7469, www.actors-express.com.
Bottom line: Something of a mess.
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