Paul David Young
Paul David Young is a playwright, translator, and critic. www.pauldavidyoung.com
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s The Comeuppance Goes Where Only Fools Dare: The High School Reunion
By Paul David YoungI have never felt the slightest inclination to go to a high school reunion, but apparently many people do in America, and thus a subgenre of film and theater has been created. The premise is that no matter how miserable high school was or how bad your relationships were, you will return to spend a few intoxicated hours with those special people from long ago. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s riff on this genre, The Comeuppance at Signature Theatre, showcases his ease with dialogue as he keeps the action going in a continuous gabfest, seamlessly and artfully directed by Eric Ting, at the pre-party leading up to the reunion.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window Returns to New York Six Decades after its Broadway Premiere
By Paul David YoungThe BAM Harvey Theater revival of Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, a panorama of early 1960s West Village bohemia, the Bushwick of yesteryear, offers its talented cast many opportunities to show their comic timing, though the production cannot overcome the play's flaws entirely.
