A Storied Black Family Faces Itself in Purpose

Photo: Marc J. Franklin The expectations of genre may at once signify an imposing edifice that a playwright might stretch themselves to fulfill, and simultaneously, a familiar model to which they can retreat for comfort and direction - something like a family home, especially the one onstage at the Hayes Theater in Purpose. In the multilevel, coral-colored Chicago mansion that is Todd Rosenthal's set, cut through with a drama-ready spiral staircase, lies the accumulated evidence of the Jasper family's prominence. There are framed photos of their patriarch Solomon with various Black . . .