Appropriate

Performed by University of Richmond’s very own theatre department, Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkin was an extremely thought-provoking play. The play chronicles three children arriving at their father’s plantation home in Arkansas with their own children following his death. The siblings have clearly fallen out of contact with one another and old tensions are immediately brought back to the surface. However, those tensions fall to the wayside as a much bigger one appears: the discovery of photos of lynchings and the remains of a black person.

Not knowing what to believe and not wanting to confront the harsh reality that their father was a member of or at the very least a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, the struggles the siblings face can be easily seen as a metaphor for the United States today. It is easy to forget that we are only two generations removed from the height of the KKK, Jim Crow, and blatant acts of racially-motivated hate. Many of us want to believe that we as a country have moved past those days, but when confronted with the reality that people we know or are connected to may have contributed to that problem we often shut down or go into denial. This play reinforces the need for a continued dialogue about race in our country today. We’ve made progress in many ways, but just because lynchings aren’t commonplace in today’s world doesn’t mean we’ve solved the problem.