The Comeuppance
Duration: RIGHTS NOT HELD BY NHB
Performing rights not held by Nick Hern Books
25 Apr 2024Size: 198mm x 129mm
The Comeuppance
Paperback
£10.99£8.79
Almeida Theatre, London
From Sat 6 Apr 2024 to Sat 18 May 2024
Autumn 2022. A group of friends gathering hours before their high-school reunion.
Twenty years have passed since graduation: some have had children; some have moved to the other side of the world; some have been to war.
But there's another presence in their midst. And as they catch up and reminisce, it only takes a scratch for the scars of those school days to reopen…
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' play The Comeuppance is a bitingly comic, strikingly timely satire which asks if we can ever break free from who we used to be. It was first performed at Signature Theatre, New York City, in 2023, and received its UK premiere at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Eric Ting.
'One of this country's most original and illuminating writers' The New York Times on Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
'I guess this is just that age. The Age of Shit Showing Up. The Age of Bad Choices Seeking Their Consequences.'
'A meditation on memory, ageing and lost hopes... Jacobs-Jenkins's sharply sculpted dialogue teases out the tensions that exist beneath the bonhomie... this is a writer who enjoys playing games with conventions. Nothing is quite what it seems... a piece which continually plays tricks with perspective'
The Times'Rich and alive... flares with subtle brilliance... The Comeuppance is good theatre with eloquent outbursts and awkward wit. Its themes play in the mind after the curtain comes down and it is a relief to see theatre dealing with the Covid years, staring its death in the face'
Guardian'Dark but laugh-aloud drama'
Evening Standard'A bold look at a painful school reunion with a daring theatrical flourish'
Telegraph'A post-Covid play haunted by death, rich in ideas, sometimes profound'
Independent'An eerie drama of mortality and memory that exerts an insidious fascination... a melancholic, meditative piece with a dash of gallows humour; an elegant danse macabre... Jacobs-Jenkins spins the interconnecting threads of memory and attachment with arachnid delicacy and skill... hypnotic and brooding'
The Stage'A smart dark comedy about millennials hitting middle-age... droll and compelling'
Time Out'Waspishly humorous and darkly metaphysical'
Financial Times'Compelling... original and thought-provoking... entertaining yet hard-hitting'
Broadway World'Gripping and funny... inventively grapples with universal fears of mortality'
Everything Theatre'Searingly funny and abruptly sad'
Culture Whisper'An eloquently rueful meditation on how briskly and brutally youthful dreams evaporate... sharply perceptive... hits an emotional jackpot'
iNews'Funny and engaging'
British Theatre GuideDuration: RIGHTS NOT HELD BY NHB
Performing rights not held by Nick Hern Books
25 Apr 2024Size: 198mm x 129mm
