Directed by Phylicia Rashad, “Purpose” is all the more powerful, though, for its sly, barely fictionalized reference to a specific family, that of the Rev. Jackson, whose son, former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., was busted in 2015 for violating federal campaign law by using campaign funds to make personal purchases and sent to prison. His now ex-wife Sandi Jackson was sent away too, on the inarguably flimsy grounds of jointly filing a fraudulent tax return. In a novel concession to the couple having young children, a judge allowed the two to serve their sentences sequentially.
From left: LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Glenn Davis, Kara Young, and Jon Michael Hill in “Purpose.” (Marc J. Franklin)
Anyone who has real-life experience with such a circle-the-wagons family will tell you that it’s the outsiders drawn in by marriage who have the hardest time. So it’s apt that the breakout performance here comes from Arenas, the longtime Steppenwolf ensemble member who is on fire from the moment she walks out on the stage of the Hayes Theatre, her character so infuriated by the actions of her husband, and so aware of what familial forces made him this way, she can barely contain the roar of her sardonic rage.
LaTanya Richardson Jackson in “Purpose.” (Marc J. Franklin)
Hill is a deeply empathetic actor and his character pulls the audience through this story by the hand, revealing a now-struggling Solomon and an unstable family trapped in the deepest form of denial. Jacob-Jenkins has penned Naz as an asexual introvert, the kind of young man who finds solace in nature and lakes and everything that takes him far away from either his father’s infidelity or the glare of political attention. It’s a remarkably moving character, likely all too familiar to all scions of big personalities with even bigger flaws. And it’s rendered beautifully by one of Steppenwolf’s young stars.
From left: Jon Michael Hill, Kara Young, and Harry Lennix in “Purpose.” (Marc J. Franklin)