A bitingly funny, wildly imaginative new play by The Public’s Emerging Writers Group alumnus Ife Olujobi, JORDANS is a piercing exploration of assimilation, racial capitalism, success, and survival. At an overwhelmingly white workplace where appearance is everything, a long-suffering receptionist finds herself in personal, professional, and psychic jeopardy when her ruthless boss hires a hip new employee in an effort to improve the company’s image and “culture.” Suddenly, the two young, Black social climbers are forced together and torn apart by their race, ambition, and otherworldly circumstance. JORDANS is a story of identity mistaken, power subverted, and rage unleashed. Don’t miss this bold new play directed by Obie Award winner Whitney White about the true cost of “diversity” in the workplace.
If you liked Jordan Peele’s horror comedy “Get Out,” you’re going to love Ife Olujobi’s horror comedy “Jordans,” which opened Wednesday at the Public Theater. Is it pure coincidence that Peele’s first name is Jordan, and Olujobi has written a play that’s about two characters who are named Jordan? The similarities don’t end there. Both “Get Out” and “Jordans” clock in as many gasps as they do laughs. More significant, each work sets Black characters — one in “Get Out,” two in “Jordans” — who find themselves in the uncomfortable situation of living and working in a white-run world.
Jordans aims to take us to a place of horror and hysteria, a place where the laughter becomes a choke, a gag, a howl. But it hasn’t gone far enough at either end of the satirical spectrum. On one side, the inhuman scale; on the other, beneath the zingers and jabs, the bruised human hearts that are, somehow, still beating.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
Videos