From the outside, the Jaspers appear to embody success and influence: a prominent Black family in Chicago. Patriarch Solomon is a revered preacher and celebrated figure of the civil rights movement; matriarch Claudine, the consummate pastor’s wife, has long campaigned by his side. Their eldest son, Junior, was a rising political star… until he embezzled campaign funds and served two years in prison. Younger son Nazareth (Naz) came within a whisker of completing a divinity degree before abandoning it to take off and photograph lakes instead.
Family reunion
Now newly released, Junior returns home for a family dinner marking both his freedom and Claudine’s recent birthday. He arrives with his formidable lawyer wife, Morgan, while Naz brings along an unexpected guest, Aziza.
Muted modern jazz drifts through the elegant dining room as snow falls softly beyond the windows. A portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. presides above the piano; modern artworks line the walls; crystal glasses sparkle on the table amid fresh flowers and carefully stacked books. Jeremy Allen’s set design evokes refinement and serenity, poised for a gracious reunion.
But serenity is not on the menu.
Truths revealed
As a blizzard gathers outside, a more volatile storm brews within. Once an ardent admirer of Solomon, Aziza becomes the audience’s reluctant witness to a no-holds-barred family reckoning, in which reputations fracture and long-suppressed truths erupt. One by one, each family member is laid bare, revealed to be far more complicated and compromised than the polished image suggests.
Under Zindzi Okenyo’s direction, Purpose interrogates familial expectation, fidelity, love, sexuality, truth-telling and, ultimately, the question of what it means to live a life of integrity and purpose. The ensemble worked increasingly well together as the play progressed, with particularly compelling performances from Tinashe Mangwana as Naz and Sisi Stringer as Aziza.
In peeling back the veneer of respectability, Purpose delivers a deeply human portrait of a family forced to confront who they are when the stories they tell about themselves can no longer hold.
Purpose
Sydney Theatre Company
Until 22 March,2026
sydneytheatre.com.au
Images credit: Prudence Upton.
