Opening Wednesday 30 April, Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre will present the Australian debut of The Comeuppance, a masterful new work from American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins – hailed as his ‘third masterpiece’ by The Stage (Girls, Everybody, War, Gloria, Appropriate, An Octoroon, and Neighbors).
Following its acclaimed world premiere at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre, multi-award-winning director Gary Abrahams (Iphigenia In Splott, Red Stitch; Yentl, Arts Centre Melbourne; Admissions, Melbourne Theatre Company) will return to Red Stitch to direct this haunting, comic and strikingly timely satire.
The play centres on a group of five friends who gather on the night of their 20th high school reunion. In what begins as a night of nostalgia, revelry soon gives way to revelation as friendships are tested, bonds are strained and the specter of mortality looms at the edge of the party. With unflinching insight, The Comeuppance offers a powerful reflection on society today and the inevitability of time.
The stellar cast includes ensemble members Kevin Hofbauer and Khisraw Jones-Shukoor, who are joined on stage by Julia Grace, as well as Douglas Lyons, AYA, and Tess Masters making their Red Stitch debuts. The production’s creative team features set and costume designer Ella Butler, with lighting and sound design by Joe Shang Yu Lui.
A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Jacobs-Jenkins’ astute script is brilliantly witty and theatrical. Running from 26 April to 25 May at Red Stitch’s Home on Chapel St, tickets are available now at redstitch.net.
