Theater: “Jordans” at the Public Theatre
There are no second acts in American lives, F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote. If only that were true of “Jordans,” Ife Olujobi’s puzzling satire at the Public Theater.
Act 1 is punchy and funny. The setting is a “full service rental studio and production facility,”specializing in fashion shoots and videos. The studio is run by Hailey (Kate Walsh), a domineering (“I have a steel vagina”) b*tch who feels her all-white Gen Z staff is making the firm less competitive in the marketplace. “We need more representation of people unlike us,” she proclaims.
Overhearing this is Jordan (Naomi Lorrain), the overworked, under-appreciated Black receptionist. Basically, she handles all the donkey work the privileged white Gen-Zers deign to handle: from hanging up the boss’s cloak as she walks in the door, to lugging heavy furniture in and out of the studio—all while covering the phones.
Suddenly a white knight arrives—in the form of the newly hired, Morehouse-grad Black director of culture (Toby Onwumere). He quickly catches on and is duly horrified by the poisonous vibe Hailey has created. Jordan the director takes Jordan the receptionist aside—“a sister” he calls her—and asks how she can put up with it. She just lets it roll off her back.
The second act is where it all begins to fall apart. The two Jordans meet after hours and before they hop into bed, Jordan the receptionist proposes a solution: both of them share responsibilities for directing the firm’s culture. “They can’t tell us apart anyway,” she says, a dig at the “own race bias” theory, where people tend to think all people of a different race look alike.
What follows is a weird mix of plot points: including switched gender identifies, and the acquisition of a new watch client, whose spokesperson, Doctor Klonopin (Brian Muller), is a rapper who’s served time in jail. The ending, which is nonsensical and lazy, is highly disturbing—although kudos to the prop people for their gruesome special effects.
What makes this such a bummer is that the acting is excellent throughout. Lorrain and Onwumere, veritable newcomers to me, are terrific as the two Jordans, as is Kate Walsh who is appropriately loathsome as Hailey. The politically correct gobbledygook-gook the Gen Zers spout seems to conform to the lingo of today’s workplace.
I applaud the Public for taking a chance on “Jordans” and Olujobi but frankly both need more seasoning. And while Will Rogers once said, “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” I have high hopes for this young playwright anyway.
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