Purpose at La Jolla Playhouse
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Pulitzer Prize and Tony Play
By: Sharon Eubanks - May 27, 2026
A father, mother, and two sons invite us into their artfully appointed living room and dining room in a comfortable house in Chicago. The aggrieved wife feels wronged by the family. An unexpected guest arrives.
The La Jolla Playhouse presentation of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award?winning play Purpose delivers a searing portrait of a prominent Black family in Chicago. Solomon Jasper (played by Derrick Parker) patriarch of the family, a minister, and towering figure of America’s civil rights movement has retired and spends his time maintaining bees in his back yard. Claudine Jasper (Stephanie Berry), the family matriarch, is committed to maintaining the family status. They depend on income from Solomon’s speaking engagements to maintain their standard of living. As such, Claudine also serves as the family fixer, making inconvenient problems go away. The family must keep up its pristine image. They have two sons, Solomon Junior (Sean Boyce Johnson) and Nazareth (Matthew Elijah Webb).
Nazareth (Naz) has come home to celebrate his mother’s birthday and to welcome back Junior, who has finished serving time in prison for embezzlement of campaign funds. Naz’s friend from New York, Aziza (Andrea Agosto) has driven him to Chicago from Niagara. Aziza planned to return to New York that evening, but comes back inside the house to give Naz something he left in the car. Naz has never really shared his private life with his family. Misunderstanding the situation between Naz and Aziza, and with heavy snow developing outside, Claudine pressures Aziza to stay overnight with the family.
On the surface, the Jaspers present as a model upstanding prosperous Black family. Aziza is dazzled when she learns who Naz’s father really is and is overwhelmed at meeting such an icon of American history. However, as the night continues, Aziza is witness to the glowing veneer stripped off in unrelenting fashion.
Naz as narrator guides the audience through this tense evening as the family confronts issues long left buried. Solomon senior is bitterly disappointed in his oldest son, who he had hoped would carry on his life’s work. Solomon junior, self-centered and indulged by his mother, has a knack for turning attention to himself.
Junior’s wife, Morgan (a wry, bemused Crystal Dickinson), is preparing to serve her part of the prison sentence. She doesn’t want to be there and seems to imply the Jaspers may have tried to set her up for Junior’s embezzling.
Naz exhibits behaviors Aziza never saw in New York and has her entertaining serious doubts about the person she thought she knew. Through the whole excruciating evening, Claudine stays hyper-focused on controlling the action to protect the family from outside scandal.
Purpose is set within the backdrop of America’s civil rights movement. Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg. the play probes and questions what is the purpose of each generation. For Solomon’s generation the purpose was clear; provide conditions for the next generation to succeed. However, saddled with the burden of living in the shadow of their larger-than-life father, one son tried to follow in his fathers’ footsteps, the other son retreated to a life of solitude. How does one generation pass the torch to the next and keep the purpose alive? In light of current events, can the next generation take hard earned gains for granted?
This is a splendid evening to theater at the La Jolla Playhouse.