About the Play:

The Comeuppance has become a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Male Scenes.

The Comeuppance is a full-length drama by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. On the eve of their 20th high school reunion, a group of old classmates reunites, but nostalgia quickly turns into something darker. As drinks flow and old wounds resurface, they confront the choices that shaped them, the friendships that endured or crumbled, and the presence of something – or someone – they can't escape. Brilliantly witty, theatrical, and moving, The Comeuppance focuses on millennials and their reckoning with the world they will soon inherit.

The Comeuppance is a meditation on impermanence, nostalgia, and isolation. The past never really stays in the past. When a close-knit group of former classmates reconvenes for the first time in years to pregame for their twentieth high school reunion, everyone is nervous for the night ahead. Over alcohol and other such substances, they try to reconnect who they once were with who they've each become. Bonded in their youth as outsiders, they now navigate the complexities of adulthood with humour, heart, and a hint of nostalgia. Did their friendships stand the test of time, or will they realize they don't have as much in common as they thought they did? As the self-declared "Multi-Ethnic Reject Group" let their guards down, they begin to reminisce about their teenage selves and reveal how their lives have unfolded since graduation. Sharp, theatrical, and deeply moving, The Comeuppance is a reckoning for elder millennials, caught between who they were, who they've become, and the world they never saw coming. When the night ends, will they still recognize themselves? This play is a toast to the ties that bind us, the past that shapes us, and the future we step into together.

The Comeuppance premiered in 2023 at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, located within the Pershing Square Signature Center, off-Broadway in New York City. It won 2024 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 2 male

What people say:

"The Comeuppance is a rich and fully mature work…a haunting new play. It's a mystery of the fine writing that the humor does not squash but rather enhances the pathos surging underneath. When it erupts, it can be devastating." — The New York Times

"The Comeuppance channels and condenses what's been floating in the ether and brings it all to earth. Here's a drama where Branden Jacobs-Jenkins both sums up and reconfigures the present moment." — New York Magazine

"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins delivers his third masterpiece." — The Stage

"Brilliant…a worthy successor to standouts like Gloria and An Octoroon." — New York Stage Review

"The anxiety of elder millennials as we peer over the hill is a rich source of drama, and Jacobs-Jenkins finds thrilling ways to exploit that." — TheaterMania

"Brilliant…a worthy successor to standouts like Gloria and An Octoroon." — New York Stage Review

About the Playwright:

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is an African-American playwright. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a two-time Obie Award winner, a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Award recipient, and was awarded the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation Theatre Award, among many other honours.