Appropriate

A piercing examination of inherited legacy, generational trauma, and the myths families construct to survive.

The estranged Lafayette siblings reunite at their late father’s deteriorating Arkansas plantation home to settle his estate. What begins as a practical sorting of possessions soon becomes an excavation of long-buried resentments, inherited narratives, and unsettling secrets. As Toni, Beau, and Frank sift through decades of accumulated debris, they confront not only their father’s legacy but their own complicity in preserving it.

Darkly funny and deeply unsettling, Appropriate peels back layers of family mythology to expose uncomfortable truths about race, history, ownership, and denial. The play moves between biting satire and emotional volatility, forcing its characters, and its audience, to grapple with what it means to claim, inherit, or reject the past.

History

Appropriate premiered Off-Broadway at Signature Theatre in 2014 under the direction of Liesl Tommy. The play quickly became one of the most talked-about American works of the decade. In 2023, it made its Broadway premiere at the Hayes Theater, directed by Lila Neugebauer and starring Sarah Paulson, who won the Tony Award for her performance. Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has become one of the leading voices in contemporary American theatre, known for interrogating historical narratives and theatrical form with boldness and precision.