A patriarch dies, a plantation lies in ruin, and his issue have come home to sort through the mess. The family includes the black sheep, a recovering addict (Michael Esper), the daughter who refuses to see any wrong in daddy (Sarah Paulson), and the son who wants to recover his investment on his father’s last years (Corey Stoll).

The setup to Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate is familiar, though it offers some variation on the theme. For example, American plays of this sort usually conclude with a thunderous secret that transforms each member of the family and their relationships to one another. Here the secret comes out early: dad collected lynching memorabilia, including photographs, clothing, and body parts. For the remainder of the play, the family pretends this didn’t happen. They never mention the clothing and body parts again. They keep trying to get rid of the photographs, but their historical and monetary value subvert attempts at their disposal.

Appropriate is ten years old, a revival from early in Jacobs-Jenkins’ career. It is the good work of an artist who has done great (An Octoroon, Everybody, The Comeuppance). The acting is strong, the writing is funny, and the result is a little less than the sum of its parts. It also has the occasional weak spots. There are too many speeches where characters explain the play to us. And surely it is time to retire cicadas, which emerge from under the ground every thirteen years, as a metaphor.

The fact that Jacobs-Jenkins has found juice to squeeze out of this old orange is impressive, but it makes me more interested in his future work.

Appropriate runs through March 3rd at the Helen Hayes Theater.  240 W. 44th Street  New York, NY.  2 hours 40 minutes.  One intermission. Photograph by Joan Marcus.