The Comeuppance
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Directed by Eric Ting
Event details
Sat 6 Apr - Sat 18 May 2024
★★★★
“Clever, funny and compelling”
Financial Times
★★★★
“A magical, original piece of theatre”
WhatsOnStage
I guess this is just that age.
The Age of Shit Showing Up.
The Age of Bad Choices Seeking Their Consequences.
Autumn 2022. A group of friends gather hours before their high school reunion.
20 years have passed since graduation: some have had children; some have moved to the other side of the world; some have been to war.
But there’s another presence in their midst. And as they catch up and reminisce, it only takes a scratch for the scars of those school days to surface.
Eric Ting (The Comeuppance US premiere; Between Two Knees) directs the UK premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins‘ (An Octoroon; Appropriate) bitingly comic, strikingly timely satire, which asks if we can ever break free from the people we used to be.
Full cast includes Yolanda Kettle (Patriots; The Crown), Ferdinand Kingsley (Silo; Reacher), Tamara Lawrance (The Silent Twins; King Charles III), Katie Leung (Harry Potter; White Pearl) and Anthony Welsh (The Flatshare; Sucker Punch).
“One of this country’s most original and illuminating writers”
The New York Times on Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Running Time Approx. 2 hours, no interval
Evenings 7.30pm
Matinees 2.30pm
Access Performances
Book our access performances by calling Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
Audio Described Sat 4 May 2.30pm (Touch Tour 12.30pm)
Captioned Mon 29 Apr 7.30pm
Relaxed Environment Wed 8 May 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Content Warnings Read more about our production guidance and warnings>
reviews
VIDEOS
Cast & Creatives
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Cast
Yolanda KettleYolanda Kettle
Yolanda Kettle
For the Almeida: Patriots; Oil.
Theatre includes: The Interview (Park Theatre); Anthropology; Eden; Hello/Goodbye (Hampstead Theatre); Plenty; For Services Rendered (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Deep Blue Sea (National Theatre); Little Light (Orange Tree Theatre); Coolatully (Finborough Theatre); Birdland; Saved (Royal Court); A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); A Doll’s House (Young Vic/ West End); Seagull (Arcola Theatre).
Film includes: Persuasion; Made in Italy.
Television includes: Roadkill; Howards End; Marcella; Doc Martin; The Crown; The Collection; Love, Nina.
Ferdinand KingsleyFerdinand Kingsley
Ferdinand Kingsley
Theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet; Little Eyolf; Troilus and Cressida (RSC); The Winter’s Tale (Headlong Theatre); Welcome to Thebes; Hamlet (Commendation at the Ian Charleson Awards); King James Bible: The Gospel According to Mark; Man and Superman (National Theatre); York Mystery Plays (York Theatre Royal); Red Velvet (Kiln Theatre); Venice Preserv’d (The Spectators’ Guild); Teh Internet Is Serious Business (Royal Court).
Film includes: Mank; Dracula Untold; The Last Legion.
Television includes: Reacher; Silo; The Sandman; Midsomer Murders; Perpetual Grace, LTD; Still Star-Crossed; Victoria; Doctor Who; Borgia; The Whale; Poirot; Ripper Street; The Hollow Crown; Vincent Van Gogh: Painted with Words.
Radio includes: The Aldrich Kemp Trilogy; The Lovecraft Investigations; A Bookshop in Algiers; Mystery Machine; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay; The Story of a New Name; The News from Home; Fugue State; War and Peace; A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Tamara LawranceTamara Lawrance
Tamara Lawrance
Tamara trained at RADA and has since earned critical acclaim for her work both on stage and on screen. She was announced by The Guardian as one of their “talents set to take 2017 by storm”, one of Screen International’s Screen Stars of Tomorrow, as well as one of BAFTA’s Breakthrough Talent 2020. That same year, Tamara won Best Female Actor at the RTS Awards for The Long Song and was nominated in the same category the following year at BAFTA Scotland for her performance in Kindred. Most recently, Tamara won Joint Lead Performance at the 2022 BIFA Awards for her role in The Silent Twins.
Theatre includes: Is God Is; Unreachable (Royal Court); The Tell-Tale Heart; Twelfth Night; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (National Theatre); King Lear (Chichester Festival Theatre).Film includes: The Man in My Basement; The Silent Twins; Boxing Day; Kindred; On Chesil Beach.
Television includes: Mr Loverman; Time; Invasion; Small Axe; The Long Song; No Offence; The Split; King Charles III; Undercover.
Katie LeungKatie Leung
Katie Leung
Theatre includes: White Pearl; You For Me For You (Royal Court); Snow in Midsummer (RSC); The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (Hampstead Theatre); The World of Extreme Happiness (National Theatre); Wild Swans (American Repertory Theater/ Young Vic).
Film includes: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; The Foreigner.
Television includes: Nightsleeper; TheWheel of Time; The Peripheral; Annika; Roadkill; The Nest; Chimerica; Strangers; Moominvalley; One Child; Run; Father Brown; Poirot; Arcane.
Anthony WelshAnthony Welsh
Anthony Welsh
For the Almeida: The Merchant of Venice.
Theatre includes: The Brothers Size (Young Vic/ UK tour); Dirty Butterfly; Blackta (Young Vic); Barber Shop Chronicles; Nut (National Theatre); Precious Little Talent (West End); Lower Ninth (West End/ Donmar Warehouse); Sucker Punch (Royal Court); Pornography (Kiln Theatre/ UK tour).
Film includes: Bob Marley: One Love; The Personal History of David Copperfield; Calm with Horses; Ibiza; Journeyman; Sand Castle; The Girl with All the Gifts; Second Coming; Starred Up; Dirty Money; My Brother the Devil; Comes a Bright Day; Red Tails.
Television includes: On the Edge; The Flatshare; The Gallows Pole; The Great; Master of None; Hanna; The Trial of Christine Keeler; Brassic; Pure; Black Mirror; Fleabag; The Secrets; Life’s Too Short; Top Boy.
Radio includes: A Rage Explained; Silk: The Clerks Room; Carnival; Hello Mum; The Interrogation; David and Goliath.
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Creatives
Branden Jacobs-JenkinsBranden Jacobs-Jenkins
Writer
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Branden is a Brooklyn-based playwright, producer and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Theatre includes: Appropriate (Broadway/ Signature Theatre, New York, Obie Award for Best New American Play); The Comeuppance; Everybody (Signature Theatre, New York); Girls (Yale Repertory Theatre); War (Yale Repertory Theatre/ Lincoln Center, New York); Gloria (Vineyard Theatre); An Octoroon (Soho Repertory Theatre, New York/ National Theatre, Obie Award for Best New American Play); Neighbors (Public Theater).
Branden currently teaches at Yale University and serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild Council and on the boards of Soho Repertory Theatre, Park Avenue Armory, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation. Honors include a USA Artists Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the MacArthur Fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award.
Eric TingEric Ting
Director
Eric Ting
Eric is a two-time Obie Award-winning director whose work, spanning theatre, opera and dance, has been seen across the US and internationally.
Theatre includes: The Comeuppance (Signature Theater, New York); Between Two Knees (Perelman Performing Arts Center, New York/ Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Far Country (Atlantic Theater Company); We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 (Soho Repertory Theater, New York); The World of Extreme Happiness (Manhattan Theater Club/ Goodman Theatre).
Eric is one of three directors at Soho Repertory Theater in New York.
Arnulfo MaldonadoArnulfo Maldonado
Set & Costume Designer
Arnulfo Maldonado
Arnulfo is a New York City-based set and costume designer.
Theatre includes: Home; Topdog/Underdog; Trouble in Mind (Broadway); A Strange Loop (Broadway/ Barbican/ West End/ Playwrights Horizons/ Center Theatre Group/ Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Tony Award nomination for Best Scenic Design of a Musical); In Dreams (Leeds Playhouse); The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir (International tour); Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic Theater Company); The Rolling Stone; The Coast Starlight (Lincoln Center Theater); Nollywood Dreams; Schools Girls; or The African Mean Girls Play (MCC Theater/ Center Theatre Group); Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (Manhattan Theater Club); Sabbath’s Theater (The New Group); Dance Nation; Iowa (Playwrights Horizon); MOJADA (Public Theater, New York); The Refuge Plays (Roundabout Theatre Company); To My Girls; Toros (Second Stage Theater); The Comeuppance; Orlando; My Broken Language (Signature Theatre, New York); Passage; DUAT; generations (Soho Rep); Cult of Love; An Octoroon (Berkely Repertory Theatre); Indecent (Guthrie Theater); Dance Nation (Steppenwolf Theatre); Shipwreck (Woolly Mammoth Theatre).
Arnulfo received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Set Design, as well as a Special Citation Obie as part of the Creative Team of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Strange Loop. He is also a recipient of a Princess Grace Faberge Theater Award, Lucille Lortel Award, and is a multiple Henry Hewes Design nominee.
Natasha ChiversNatasha Chivers
Lighting Designer
Natasha Chivers
For the Almeida: The Doctor; Oresteia (Olivier Award nomination for Best Lighting); Hamlet (also West End/ Park Avenue Armory, New York).
Theatre includes: The Hills of California (West End); Prima Facie (West End/ Broadway, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play, Olivier and Tony Award nominations for Best Lighting Design); Sylvia; The American Clock (The Old Vic); Enemy of People (Park Avenue Armory, New York); Judas (Internationaal Theater Amsterdam); Ivanov (The Staatstheater Stuttgart); Kan Ya Ma Kan (Global Theatre, Boulevard Riyadh City); Drive & Live: La bohème (ENO); 1984 (West End/ Broadway); The Antipodes; Sunset at the Villa Thalia; Statement of Regret (National Theatre); The Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion; The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning; Praxis Makes Perfect (National Theatre Wales); Sunday in the Park with George (Menier Chocolate Factory/ West End, Olivier Award for Best Lighting); Mates in Chelsea; Shoe Lady; White Pearl; The Cane; Bad Roads; Mistress Contract; Fireworks (Royal Court); The Deep Blue Sea; The Chalk Garden; The House They Grew Up In (Chichester Festival Theatre); We Are Here (La MaMa, New York)
Dance includes: Peaky Blinders (Rambert); Message in A Bottle; Electric Hotel; Gravity Fatigue (Sadler’s Wells); Strapless; Electric Counterpoint (The Royal Ballet).
Emma LaxtonEmma Laxton
Sound Designer
Emma Laxton
For the Almeida: Vassa; The Writer.
Theatre includes: Emilia (Olivier Award for Best Sound Design); Equus; Walden (as associate) (West End); The Big Life (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); Mlima’s Tale (Kiln Theatre); Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-written; Antigone (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Dancing at Lughnasa (National Theatre); The Collaboration (Young Vic/ Broadway); A Christmas Carol (as associate) (The Old Vic); A Kind of People; Superhoe (Royal Court); The Country Wife; random/generations; The House They Grew Up In; Forty Years On (Chichester Festival Theatre); Titus Andronicus (RSC/ Barbican); Julius Caesar; The Band Plays On; Coriolanus (Sheffield Theatres); The York Realist; Trouble in Butetown; Limehouse; Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse); Hamlet; See Me Now (Young Vic); Breaking the Code; All My Sons; A Doll’s House; Three Birds; The Accrington Pals; Lady Windermere’s Fan (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Sweet Charity (Nottingham Playhouse); Ghosts; The Oresteia (HOME, Manchester); Made in Dagenham (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch/ The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich); Boys Will Be Boys (Headlong/ Bush Theatre); Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Headlong/ UK tour).
Skylar FoxSkylar Fox
Magic & Visual Effects Designer
Skylar Fox
Skylar is an Obie Award-winning director, writer and designer based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the co-artistic director of Nightdrive, where he has directed, designed, and co-written The Grown-Ups – a production that was included in Time Out’s Top 10 New York City Theatre Productions of the Year.
As Director, Designer and Co-Writer: The Grown-Ups; Alien Nation (Paradise Factory Theater); Providence, RI (The Tank, New York); Thank You Sorry (Ars Nova); Apathy Boy (The Brick/ Ars Nova).
As Director: Pussy Sludge (HERE Arts Center, New York); Passion Play (American Repertory Theater, IRNE Award nomination for Best Direction).
As Associate Designer: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Back to the Future; A Beautiful Noise (Broadway/ International tour).
As Magic Designer: Fat Ham (Public Theater, New York/ National Black Theatre/ Broadway); Once Upon a Mattress (New York City Centre); Boop! The Musical (Broadway In Chicago); The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre, New York); You Will Get Sick (Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, New York); Wicked; Matilda (Atelier de Cultra, São Paulo); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Grand Theatre, New York); Damn Yankees (Shaw Festival Theatre).
Will HoustounWill Houstoun
Magic & Visual Effects Designer
Will Houstoun
Will uses his expertise in conjuring and its history, combined with performance and problem-solving experience, to help tell stories, build atmosphere, and create astonishing moments.
Theatre includes:
For the Almeida: The Twilight Zone (also West End).
As Illusion Designer: The Witches (National Theatre); Guardians of the Galaxy (Secret Cinema); The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Northern Stage);
As Associate Illusion Designer: 2:22 A Ghost Story (West End/ UK tour/ Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles); The Time Traveller’s Wife; The Prince of Egypt (West End).
Opera includes: Katya Kabanova (Royal Opera House); The Rake’s Progress (English Touring Opera); The Rhinegold (ENO).
Film includes: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind; Hugo.
Television includes: Wolf Hall.
Will is also performer in residence at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Music’s Center for Performance Science. He holds a literary fellowship from The Academy of Magic Arts, Los Angeles, and is a past winner of the European Magic Championships, as well as a member of the Inner Magic Circle. His PhD explored the history of magical education and he has found innovative ways to use magic as an educational tool with organisations including the United Nations Development Programme and the World Economic Forum.
Jatinder CheraJatinder Chera
Casting Director
Jatinder Chera
Theatre includes: The P Word; Sleepova; A Playlist for the Revolution (Bush Theatre); The Flea; Samuel Takes a Break; Multiple Casualty Incident (The Yard); Sweat (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester).
Asha Jennings-GrantAsha Jennings-Grant
Movement & Intimacy Director
Asha Jennings-Grant
Asha (she/her) is a London-based Movement Director, Intimacy Coordinator, and Intimacy Director for stage and screen. She trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Middlesex University.
Theatre includes: MJ The Musical (West End); Romeo and Juliet; Burnt at the Stake; The Tempest; Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe); Till the Stars Come Down (National Theatre); Twelfth Night; All’s Well That Ends Well (RSC); Jitney (The Old Vic/ Leeds Playhouse); In Dreams; A Passionate Woman (Leeds Playhouse); Sucker Punch (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch/ UK tour); The Architect (Greenwich+Docklands International Festival); Smoke (Southwark Playhouse); Around the World in 80 Days (York Theatre Royal/ UK tour); The Solid Life of Sugar Water; Rice (Orange Tree Theatre/ UK tour); Jekyll and Hyde (Guildford Shakespeare Company); Vinegar Tom (The Maltings Theatre); Leopards (Rose Theatre Kingston); Shuck ‘n’ Jive (Soho Theatre); The Magna Carta Plays (Salisbury Playhouse); PUSH (New Diorama Theatre); The Caligari Experience (Compass Presents); Watership Down (Watford Palace Theatre).Film includes: One More.
Television includes: Archie; The Confessions of Frannie Langton; The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe; Perfect; Sherwood; Mood; Brave New World.
Rebecca Clark CareyRebecca Clark Carey
Dialect Coach
Rebecca Clark Carey
Rebecca has worked on over 30 productions as Head of Voice and Text at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Theatre includes: Plaza Suite (West End); Clueless (Churchill Theatre); Kim’s Convenience (Park Theatre); All the Way (Oregon Shakespeare Festival/ American Repertory Theater/ Broadway); Spring Storm; Beyond the Horizon (Royal & Derngate, Northampton/ National Theatre); The Cocoanuts (Guthrie Theater); Oedipus (American Players Theatre); Julius Caesar; Murder for Two (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Cambodian Rock Band; August: Osage County; Long Day’s Journey Into Night; Roe; The Great Society (Oregon Shakespeare Festival).
Rebecca is also co-author of The Vocal Arts Workbook, The Dramatic Text Workbook and Video, and The Shakespeare Workbook and Video.
Dubheasa LanipekunDubheasa Lanipekun
Assistant Director
Dubheasa Lanipekun
Dubheasa is a multidisciplinary theatremaker, filmmaker and photographer. In her lens-based practice she was most recently a Sundance Institute Fellow on the Ignite Programme with Adobe, winning a place with her debut short film, Blue Corridor 15. Her work is motivated by finding the social truth within drama. She is interested in work which revolves around and interrogates the theme of liberation. Her practice is grounded in a deep interest in the politicised lives of people.
For the Almeida: Cold War; Women, Beware the Devil.
Theatre includes:As Director: Best Fit (Theatre Peckham); Labyrinths of Fire (Greenwich Theatre); Resurrections (Golden Goose Theatre); Bone (Omnibus Theatre); Deb & Joan (Canal Café Theatre); Blind Date (Katzpace); A.I. in Wonderland (University of Warwick).
As Associate Director: Never Have I Ever (Chichester Festival Theatre).
As Assistant Director: Paradise Now! (Bush Theatre); Handbagged (Kiln Theatre); We Need to Talk About Grief (Donmar Warehouse); I Know My Husband Loves Me (Union Theatre).
As Assistant Dramaturg: Clean Break Pathways Programme (Royal Court).
Access Performances
Audio Described Sat 4 May 2.30pm (Touch Tour 12.30pm)
Captioned Mon 29 Apr 7.30pm
Relaxed Environment Wed 8 May 2.30pm & 7.30pm
For full information about how to book for our access performances please visit our Access For All page.
Concessions
All concession tickets are limited and subject to availability. Proof of eligibility is required. More info
Deaf and disabled patrons and a companion can buy discounted tickets by calling the Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
£5 tickets will be available to those aged 25 and under for performances from Sat 6 – Thu 11 Apr and Sat 13 Apr. Enter code 25UNDER when selecting your seats. Tickets go on sale at 5pm on Tue 12 Mar. More info
If you are aged 30 or under, over 65 or are unemployed you can book tickets at a discounted rate.
If you live or work in the Islington area you can book best available seats for £25, subject to availability. Enter promo code ISFIRST when selecting your seats. Find applicable postcodes here.
Talks & Events
Talkback
After Mon 22 Apr performance
A post-show talk with members of the company. Free to same-day ticket holders.
Almeida For Free
Thu 9 May 7.30pm
A free performance for those aged 25 and under. More info >
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World Premiere produced by Signature Theatre, New York City
Paige Evans, Artistic Director / Timothy J. McClimon, Executive Director
Artwork photography by Vicki King. Concept by Émilie Chen.