Almeida, London
Five American friends gather to catch up in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ new play. It’s a portrait of midlife malaise, but also a subtle meditation on post-Covid life
A group of former high-schoolers meet, 20 years on, to reminisce and reconnect – or that’s the idea, anyway. Instead they end up drinking, fighting and ruing the disappointments of their middle-aged lives. What looks like a typical American reunion drama is – finally! – a thoughtful post-pandemic play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
Big politics beyond the losses of Covid – America’s part in recent wars, 9/11, the storming of the Capitol, gun crime – are embroidered into the personality contests and back-stories to explore memory, millennial malaise and modern American history under the shadow of death. A US flag hangs on one side of the porch on which this pre-reunion (before the bigger party) takes place and it looks like a subtle accusation of unquestioned nationalism rather than an endorsement.
