War

by A.J. Muhammad

Image Sourced by LCT3

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins says the titles of his plays have double meanings and his latest play, “War,” is no exception. As a play in which the German language acts as a barrier between estranged family members, it should be noted that in German, “war,” means “was.” Both definitions of the word describe the central conflicts in “War.”

Joanne (Rachel Nicks) is with her comatose mother Roberta, a stroke patient, at the hospital and doesn’t know why a German speaking stranger Elfreide (Michele Shay) is at her mother’s bedside. No sooner than Tate (Chris Myers) -- Joanne’s impatient and conceited younger brother who is a political strategist -- joins his sister at the hospital that the battle begins. Understandably, Tate is less than empathetic when Elfreide’s son Tobias (Austin Durant) barges into Roberta’s room insisting that Elfreide is Roberta’s half sister who was sired when their father served in War World II and was stationed in Germany. Tate is dubious when a confrontational Tobias demands Elfreide’s portion of an inheritance that Roberta promised Elfreide and he wants to transfer Roberta to a better hospital against Joanne’s wishes.

Meanwhile Roberta (Charlayne Woodard) has an out of body experience and her company in this dimension is an ape named Alpha (Lance Coadie Wilson), who communicates in sign language. Roberta struggles to make sense of memories, her dreams deferred as a middle aged educated African American woman, and how she wound up in hospital before she can come to terms with her mortality.

“War” can be considered a companion play to Jacob-Jenkins’ “Appropriate” which was about an Caucasian family who gather at the home of their deceased patriarch and discover horrible secrets about their father.  In “War” Jacob-Jenkins revisits some of the themes he mined in “Appropriate” such as unearthing family secrets and hostile siblings. Tate resents Joanne’s past irresponsibilities and also her white “regular” husband Malcolm (Reggie Gowland) whom Tate verbally eviscerates. Additionally, Jacob-Jenkins touches on an under-examined topic in theater: the experience of people of African descent in Europe which takes on a new significance in a post-BRexit Europe.  As much as characters are at odds, he also draws comparisons between both Roberta and Tobias, both of whom cared for parents with Alzheimers: Roberta did in the past for her father, and now Tobias is running on empty tending to an ailing Elfriede.

In “War” Jacob-Jenkins interrogates the concepts of race/racial categorization, family, evolution (via apes), and spectatorship. Whatever issues one can find with the script, his cast and director, Lileana Blain-Cruz are his net. Blain-Cruz balances the two worlds of Jacob-Jenkins’ adeptly and shapes the complex narrative organically. Both Charlayne Woodard and Michele Shay are welcome veteran artists and his younger actors bring heft to the crisis mode in which their characters are engulfed.

"War" by Branden Jacob-Jenkins. Director: Lileana Blain-Cruz. Sets: Mimi Lien. Costumes: Montana Blanco. Lighting: Matt Frey. Sound: Bray Poor. Stage Manager: Charles M. Turner III.
LCT 3/Lincoln Center Theater at 150 W. 65 St.  Ran from May 21 - July 3, 2016.