REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2023 Off-Broadway hit “The Comeuppance” is making its Southwest premiere in an outstanding Stray Cat Theatre production. The play probes a group of high school friends who reunite as they approach middle-age providing a revealing journey into the past and how their current life is influenced by their formative years.
While the SCT production is sharply staged by Seth Tucker and well performed by the acting ensemble...It’s hard to believe that the play’s negative view of the formative years can be so damaging but one can’t quibble with the playwright’s view as the play won awards during both its Off-Broadway and London engagements. And Jacobs-Jenkins just won the 2025 Tony Award for “Purpose” as Best Play and this current Broadway sensation also categorizes life undesirably.
Set designer Eric Beeck takes the play off the stage and into a front yard placed within the theater’s audience section that integrates the action in a suburban Washington, D.C. house with the theatergoers, an effective touch.
The cast create believable but depressing characters. Tanner J. Conley plays the often confused Emilio who play-acts parts of his life to make him more conventional. Iris Huey’s Ursula is influenced heavily by the character’s pot use to make her life tolerable.
Michelle Luz rightly makes Caitlin the most difficult persona as many questions plague her remembrances. Willa Eigo plays the perplexed drunk doctor Kristina broadly as she makes her character’s questioning vibrant. Phillip Herrington’s Francisco is appropriately all over the place as he struggles with several demons. Noah Delgado plays the offstage Simon with pointed insight into the challenges faced by the others.
Be prepared for a well-produced but downer play about how some people are dramatically upset forever by challenges faced in their developing years. “The Comeuppance” continues through October 11. To order tickets, call the Stray Cat Theatre box office at 480-350-2822 or order tickets online at www.straycattheatre.org.
Grade: A