Siblings find upsetting items while settling father’s estate

Afractured family gathers to settle the father’s estate only to be confronted with disturbing questions about the past in “Appropriate.”

Available Light Theatre will present the central Ohio premiere of Branden Jacobs-jenkins’ offBroadway drama, which will open Thursday in the Riffe Center’s Studio One Theatre. The play is suggested for mature audiences because of profanity, sexuality, racial slurs and adult situations.

“Jacobs-jenkins can take a subject and lay it bare, layering in levels of drama, emotion, metaphors and parallels,” director David Glover said.

The three-act work, which shared a 2014 Obie award for outstanding off-broadway play with Jacobs-jenkins’ “An Octoroon,” revolves around family secrets uncovered on an Arkansas plantation as a white family sorts through the hoarded mementos of their late father.

“Jacobs-jenkins gives you moments to laugh, but he doesn’t let you get away from the family

dysfunction,” Glover said.

Kim Garrison Hopcraft plays recently divorced Antoinette “Toni” Lafayette, the oldest sibling, who returns to sell the home and its contents with the help of her brother Bo (Philip Hickman).

“Probably the most hurt and angry of the three siblings, Toni is broken and a bit of a bully,” Hopcraft said.

“Toni loves her family but doesn’t know how to love them well. She thinks she knows what’s best for everyone, but she doesn’t even know what’s best for herself.”

The three adult children struggle to make sense of their father’s life – especially after discovering the first of several disturbing artifacts, a photo album of lynchings.

“Toni is trying to resolve her memory of this man she holds so dear with physical evidence that the family finds at the house,” Hopcraft said.

“Toni is learning that her father might (have been) a bigot and a racist, but she’s fighting that judgment with every fiber of her being.”

Jordan Fehr plays Franz, the youngest sibling, who shows up with his girlfriend, River.

“Neither Toni or Bo have seen him in a decade,” Fehr said.

“Franz – also called Frank and Francois by different people – was kind of a delinquent, an alcoholic and drug addict who left their previous home in disgrace . ... He’s a morally gray character, sincere but nervous and combative.”

Franz struggles to reconcile with his older sister and brother.

“All three siblings have all kinds of resentments against each other . ... Franz tries to make amends, but they think he’s there for the money,” Fehr said.

Fehr also played roles in Available Light’s May production of “An Octoroon.”

“Both plays explore race and the legacy of slavery in America but in different ways,” Fehr said.

“’Appropriate’ is a master class in how to do domestic drama, with a little dark comedy . ... Jacobs-jenkins puts on top of that issues of race, prejudice and appropriation. To do all that in one play takes real talent.”

Available Light Theatre wanted to stage another work by Jacobs-jenkins, an up-and-coming black American playwright known for provocative dramas about racial issues, after staging the Columbus premiere of “An Octoroon,” his darkly comic play-withina-play that reimagines and critiques Dion Boucicault’s 1859 melodrama about a mixed-race woman raised as white on a Southern plantation.

“This is the first time Available Light has done two plays by the same playwright back-to-back in two consecutive seasons,” said Glover, who performed in “An Octoroon.”

“When we find brilliantly written and meaty work by a playwright we like, it’s a jumping ground . ... We felt we needed to continue exploring his themes.”