PURPOSE is the second play by American playwright Branden Jacobs–Jenkins that the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) has produced. Jacobs-Jenkins play Appropriate (2014) found wide acclaim in its 2023 Broadway production, winning the 2024 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. The STC first produced Appropriate in their 2021 program. This 2026 production of PURPOSE directed by Zindzi Okenyo now has its Australian premiere at the Wharf 1 Theatre.
PURPOSE cements Jacobs-Jenkins as an award-winning playwright who most recently won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2025 Tony Award for Best Play making Jacobs-Jenkins the first Black playwright to win back-to-back Tony Awards.
Jacobs-Jenkins plays are recognised for their ability to address historical issues surrounding race whilst challenging traditional narratives and placing those issues within identifiable family structures using wit and comedy that result in thought provoking and serious questions for an audience on how to address the issues of identity in a modern society.
PURPOSE centres on an influential, wealthy African American family dealing with secrets and tensions that threaten to ‘topple their empire’.
Integral to the staging of this production is its set design and it is the first point of entry to this production as the audience enters the theatre. It is an authentic and realistic design by Jeremy Allen that is imbued with multiple intricate details that are the cornerstone of this play’s dramatic content.
Staged within the communal domestic setting of the Jasper family home, the lounge and dining room area serve the production well. The exiting staircases and doorways allow for many unseen moments to unfold in the narrative of the play and allows the intensity and intimacy of the family dynamic to never shift focus from the centre stage.
With a table setting for 5 and an unexpected guest the sets small details imbue this production with the unanticipated drama that follows. With the portraits of Martin Luther King and Solomon Jasper placed prominently in the family home symbolising the foundation for the Black American civil rights movement and the role of father as leader and patriarch are firmly ensconced in this play.
For those familiar with the work of Jacobs-Jenkins this set design placed in the communal areas of a family home is a signature style for the enactment of the story yet to be told. The scale and intimacy in the set design provides the audience with a front row view to the unfolding drama.
The accompanying jazz music chosen by Composer & Sound Designer James Peter Brown reflects the riffs and tensions of this production.
Lighting Designer Kelsey Lee provides the shades of night and day over the evolution of this plays short but concentrated period of time.
When the show opens the first thing that is noticeable is the sound of American accents on an Australian stage and for the continuity of accent and familiarity that such accents give to the play’s location and space the Dialect Coach Rachel Finley and Voice & Text Director Charmian Gradwell must take credit.
The plays premise opens with an unexpected guest to the dinner table of the Jasper family celebrating Ma’s (albeit belated) birthday and Junior’s homecoming from prison. From here a plethora of social issues are raised and touched upon as the developing narrative makes its way to the playwrights ultimate purpose.
Mental health, prison reform, issues of sexuality and identity, infidelity and ‘family values’ reign supreme amongst the secrets and a family under strain that are at the centre of this plays themes. Jacobs-Jenkins creates a world of tension set inside the conventional domesticity of this family’s home.
Nazareth ‘Naz’ Jasper the youngest son of the Jasper family is performed by Tinashe Mangwana. The ensemble cast of 6 actors is anchored by his character. Naz who acts as both narrator and commentator in the evolving tension is the calm, funny, commanding, insightful and sensitive presence in the unique storytelling of this play. And Solomon Jasper performed by Markus Hamilton is a Preacher and Civil Rights activist who has taken up beekeeping in his retirement. He begins his journey as the rigid family patriarch wearied by his life’s experience.
His wife Claudine Jasper played by Deni Gordon is the ‘Ma’ who takes to the role of ‘professional matriarch’ with hilarious appeal.
Their eldest son is the confusingly complex Solomon ‘Junior’ Jasper played by Maurice Marvel Meredith. Like his brother his story and narrative highlight the underlying issues of class, race and how identity is formed.
His wife Morgan Jasper played by Grace Bentley-Tsibuah begins the play as the comic diversion who becomes central to the plays conscience.
Along with Naz’s unexpected and enlightening fellow traveller Aziza Houston played by Sisi Stringer the complexity and hypocrisy of this families humanly fragile ways, values, decisions and identity and how they are formed is given shape over this two-act play.
There are a couple of mis-steps in this production. The first act mostly situated at a dining table has two members with their backs to the audience. Whilst this was no doubt a conscious decision it had the potential to shadow some of the more poignant moments in the productions staging.
This play is also very witty and funny and some of the comic timing and nuance of the actors could have been tighter in delivery. Overall, these criticisms pale in the large and contemplative content that is woven into this thoughtful and enriching drama.
The work of Jacobs-Jenkins will not be automatically or easily understood by Australian audiences so context and information around the STC’s choice in producing both Appropriate in 2021 and Purpose in 2026 would be useful knowledge for attending theatre goers. Understanding Jacobs-Jenkins emerging place in international theatre history as a playwright would also provide useful context to an audience.
Most importantly the wit and dark humour that underlies the subject matter of Jacobs-Jenkins plays means the audience is given permission to laugh even when it seems darkly inappropriate to do so. No spoiler alerts but there are some quiet significant moments in this play in which such humour is present.
At its core this play is about family dynamics, human frailties and the simple ‘purpose’ and vision required in times of crisis. It is when their faith is challenged that humans question the paths that they have chosen, and what form of redemption humanity can really take in the face of such challenges.
PURPOSE is a beautifully worded narrative drama that speaks truth to power in a time and a family where this is no longer an optional extra.
The STC should be commended for its production of the work of this international playwright. PURPOSE is currently playing at the Wharf 1 Theatre until 22 March 2026. The running time is 3 hours in including one twenty minute interval. The play comes with a content warning.
Production photography by Prudence Upton.
