Theater: “Comeuppance” at Signature Theater

In “Comeuppance,” a new play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Ursula (Brittany Bradford) who lives in her late grandmother’s house in Maryland, hosts a “pre-party” in advance of her 20th high school reunion. The guests are members of her old posse, MERGE, which stands for “Multi-Ethnic Reject Group Experience.” They were an informal collection of self-proclaimed outcasts (like Ursula) who felt they were different and somewhat superior to their classmates.

After smoking a couple of J’s and drinking entirely too much spiked punch, her Gen-X pals reminisce and get nasty. Paco (Bobby Moreno) served in Afghanistan and that experience has taken its toll. His ex, Caitlin (the hilarious Susanna Flood) is trapped in a dull marriage. Meanwhile the moody embittered Emilio (Caleb Eberhardt) has become a renowned Biennial artist who moved to Germany and fathered a child “ Huh? We all thought you were gay!” one characters says, which offends Emilio to no end.

Perhaps the most interesting member of MERGE is the overachieving alcoholic doctor, Kristina, played by the excellent Shannon Tyo, who continues to prove she is the most versatile young actress currently on the off-Broadway circuit.

This play, which holds you rapt for 2 hours and change without an intermission, doesn’t just break the fourth wall, it plunges head first into it. There’s energetic hip-hop dancing on the tiny stage (all action takes place on the front porch of Ursula’s house); and not a few drunken screaming matches occur where venom pours out like water. Most interestingly there is a sixth character, “Death” who speaks through each of the characters. “I’ve had a very busy couple of years,” the voice says, referring to thousands of people who died from COVID. “I’ll be visiting one of these characters tonight.” Mysterious indeed.

“Comeuppance” may superficially remind some of my fellow OK Boomers of “The Big Chill” but it’s deeper and more original. It raises so many interesting questions for some of us who still have nightmares about high school. What does the title mean and who in this play gets their comeuppance? Can we ever forget the slights we suffered 20 years earlier, or forgive them?

Directed by Eric Ting, who jokingly explained to the audience at the outset that some of the actors were still working “on book” because the playwright had added 30 pages the night before. Well worth the extra effort, because the play contains some of the finest and most shockingly funny writing outside of early Sam Shepard. You may opt to miss your next HS reunion but by no means skip “Comeuppance,” currently in previews at Signature.