– By Cate Marquis –
Tennessee Williams Festival 2026’s “Appropriate” is a change for this festival devoted to appreciating playwright Tennessee Williams, because this is the first time the festival’s featured play was not written by Tennessee Williams. “Appropriate” was written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, although it clearly shows the influence of Tennessee Williams, a drama about a family with Southern roots and plenty of problems, who are gathered to go though the things in the family’s Southern plantation house after the death of their hoarder father. There is even a Southern gothic vibe, and the hint of ghosts from two nearby graveyards, one marked with fine headstones for the family and one unmarked for the enslaved people who worked on the plantation.
Despite the echoes of Williams, “Appropriate” is very much a modern play, with far-flung family members and more distant memories of the South. Although the three Lafayette siblings, a sister and two brothers, return to the old Southern family home where their father had been living when he died, their father actually spent most of his life in Washington, DC., which is technically the South but not in the same Deep South way as the states that made up the Confederacy.
The Lafayette siblings’ memories of the old house are from visits to their grandparents with their father, his parents living in the plantation house owned by generations of his family. Their father returned to his old family home later in life, after his wife died, with a plan to turn the old place into a bed and breakfast he could run with this struggling son, a plan never fulfilled.
Frankly, the appeal of the Old South “romantic” myth always escaped me, as the South only conjured images of its lynchings and other violence, but part of the appeal of Tennessee Williams work was his focus on people caught in that South myth rather than the “romantic” fantasy myth itself. Yet the phrase “Southern plantation house” evokes a mythical image of an imposing Southern mansion for many but, in a twist, this plantation home is not as grand as expected. And it is located in Arkansas, which was part of the Confederacy but not the state most people think of when saying the phrase “the Old South” and conjuring up those “Gone With The Wind” mythical “romantic” fantasies.
That irony sounds very Williams, doesn’t it, and in fact, the play starts out even more so, as the prodigal son of the Lafayette family, the troubled one the father had been so worried about, sneaks into the house at night with his current much-younger girlfriend. The ghosts are almost palpable, and the sounds of the night, particularly cicadas, fill the air, in a beautifully evocative opening scene.
In that striking opening scene, Franz Lafayette (Joel Moses), the prodigal son, sneaks into the old house with younger girlfriend/fiancee River (Maggie Newsted-Adams) to take a look at the contents of the house his father left behind and the house itself, before the expected arrival of his sister Toni (Jilianne Marie Klaus), the executor of the estate and oldest of the siblings. But Toni is already there, along with her grown son Rhys (Braden Phillips), awaiting the arrival of the fourth sibling, Bo (Michael James Reed) and his wife Rachel (LiziWatt) and their children, teen daughter Cassidy (Ainsley Hammond) and young son Ainseley (Aviv Giancola-Poremba). No one expected Franz, whom they call Frank, to be there, as they lost touch years ago, following a scandal.
The play does not start with the South’s past, although it does eventually get around to race and the South’s dark history before and after the Civil War, in an oblique way. Instead, it starts with the war in this family, and their own history and thorny issues.
The death of a relative who had something to leave behind can bring out the worst is some families, as siblings or cousins squabble over possesions. A relative who was a hoarder leaves another kind of mess, through which family members must shift. For this family, there is more to unpack than the stacks of boxes and the clutter of generations filling the living room, and the stage.
The stage is strewn with furniture, lamps, boxes and random objects, representing the family’s past and legacy of earlier generations. One object that comes to the surface, a book filled with photos, becomes the center of much of the immediate drama.
“Appropriate” is very much an ensemble drama, although each character gets their spotlight moment.This is an impressive production on several levels. The cast is strong, particularly Joel Moses as the haunted, flawed Franz/Frank, and Jilanne Marie Kraus as Toni, bitter and angry, and unwilling to face some facts while calling out others on their denials. Actually, all the performances are good, with each actor creating well-drawn, affecting characters that make up the moziac of the whole.
The play itself is well-written, with its twists and revealed secrets well timed, and clearly echos Williams while being very much about the present, particularly reactions to the South’s dark legacy. Direction by Benny Sato Ambush is smooth and effective.
The set is gorgeous, a big single room representing the large living room, with windows hung to the side, a staitcase to the second floor and doors on either side for exits to kitchen or another room. The ceiling is replaced with a clouds and a series of hanging objects, vases and so forth, but also ragdoll or voodoo doll like figures. The open ceiling illusion allows for wonderful lighting effects of night or dawn or dusk as the days pass.
One of the most striking aspects of the production is the sound design, with a variety of nighttime sounds, but the persistent buzz of cicadas, a drone that ebbs and flows in place of music, and creates a marvelous, evocative effect.
The play ends with a visual commentary, of a tattered, black and white American flag but perhaps a Confederate one would have been more appropriate and placed blame more firmly where it belongs. While the country as a whole has been an enabler for the South, and prejudice has reached beyond Southern borders, it was the South’s economic and social system built on enslavement that has so cost and burdened the country over the decades..
Tennessee Williams Festival 2026’s “Appropriate” is on stage at the Coca’s Catherine Berges Theater through Sept. 27, 2026.
© Cate Marquis
