THE COMEUPPANCE – REVIEW OF 2025 PRODUCTION BY SOULPEPPER

Reviewed by James Karas

The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is about four high school friends, classmates gathered for a pre-reunion event twenty years after graduation. As may be expected there is a great deal of emotional turmoil, revelations and anguish, as they recall experiences from the past and actions in the present as they meet in the house of a classmate in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

The five characters are Ursula (Ghazal Azarbad), a woman who is diabetic and as a result  has lost the sight of one eye and wears a patch. The play is set  in front of her small and unprepossessing house. Emilio (Mazin Elsadig), apparently a successful artist who is living in Europe. He has a child in Berlin. Kristina (Bahia Watson) is an anesthetist with a drinking problem and is coming to the reunion with Francisco (Carlos Gonzales-Vio) who is not part of the high school friends. Kristina dated Emilio in high school.  Francisco (also called Paco) has serious PTSD after serving in Afghanistan. Catlin (Nicole Power) is a motormouth who peppers her sentences with “like”. (Many of them do with liberal use of the f word.) She has no children but has had five miscarriages as opposed to Kristina who has children.

The most important character is probably Death. It opens the play with many names that meant nothing to me. Death speaks through the other characters. The lights dim and we see the skull of a character and hear Death speak through him or her. The facts about Caitlin’s miscarriages, for example, are related by Death whereas she wants us to believe  that she simply did not have any children.

(L to R): Bahia Watson, Mazin Elsadig, Nicole Power, 
Ghazal Azarbad, Carlos Gonzalez-Vio. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

Death speaks through Ursula and describes her birth and how her mother died shortly after she was born. She fell and hit her head on a radiator and bled profusely. Her husband left her fearing he may never be able to look after his daughter. As a result, Ursula was raised by her grandmother who suffered a horrible death from cancer.

Simon is a character that is often mentioned and anticipated to show up but never does. He answers his phone near the end of the play and speaks with the confrontational Emilio (who does not go to the reunion) but his conversation is interrupted.

The play is densely written, almost too densely as we go through memories and recollections of the past. Some recollections are false and there are so many happenings that I found it difficult to keep track of them. They all have lived through the traumatic and dramatic events of the last twenty years,  2002-2022. 9/11, the Columbine massacre, abortion, reversal of Roe v.Wade. Covid-19, Trump and war, war, war. These were terrible events but they applied to everyone. The friends are all fundamentally failures and that is the result of the choices that they made in their lives and not the historical events that they lived through.

The set by Shannon Lea Doyle shows the porch and front of Ursula’s house with an American flag displayed prominently. The lighting by Jason Hand deals with the tricky changes from individual characters to Death who emerges to speak with changes in lighting. Very well done.

Director Frank Cox-O’Connell has to deal with a complex and dense play with complex relationships and long speeches. He directs an experienced cast with superb results.

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The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, in a production by Soulpepper, continues until November 23, 2025, in the Michael Young Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Lane. Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press