Sarah Paulson in Appropriate Makes for Sensational Theater

If you see a plantation, the ghosts of slaves must be haunting. That’s the complicated plot of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play Appropriate at the Hayes Theater in a nutshell. As Toni, the eldest sibling preparing the property for sale, Sarah Paulson is perfection, plucked from her mean-as-can-be role in Steve McQueen’s award-winning movie, 12 Years a Slave. Caretaker to her ailing dad before his death, even she is clueless about his secrets—starting with, but not exclusive to, his racism against blacks. This being theater, his legacy of outsized hateful behavior goes far. In Ibsenesque fashion, it is fair to say the sins of the father are visited upon the sons. There are two: Corey Stoll plays a New York sophisticate called Bo who arrives to survey the spoils with Rachael (Natalie Gold), his “Jew” wife (that’s what dad called her) and their two kids. And, Michael Esper’s Franz brings along his girlfriend River, in Elle Fanning's Broadway debut. As family histories go, this one has everything—drug abuse, rape, murder, and some kinky obsessions. But in the end, it’s all about the real estate.

At the matinee I attended, even the theater ushers gushed at the writing. It is indeed a marvel that so much drama can shape a family backstory. Without revealing a lot, let’s just note: Siblings on call to cash in on this Arkansas property have much to mull over. High histrionics ensue—and each cast member takes a moment to shriek. Franz seems the most fragile, having disappeared for a while in the effort to change his life. As a young man, while living here in this house, he got an underaged girl pregnant. Now, he’s an agent for redemption. His girl River resembles a flower child—although Bo thinks she’s Native American, adding to the levels of identity here misnamed.

While the past must die—as Toni suggests—the present is not more promising. This won’t be the first family undone morally for want of inheritance. (As we know, racism takes more than a generation to die.) But River, while a bit woo-woo, and like a cleanse in pure water, has a secret of her own.

Appropriate ends with the uncertainty that the fallout from white supremacy can ever, like the decaying house, truly mend. Maybe it is inappropriate to think it can.