Review: Once Again, It's All About The Family

"Furlough's Paradise," Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles, April 16 - May 18, 2025

April 28, 2025 | By Bruce R. Feldman

Kacie Rogers and DeWanda Wise in Furlough's Paradise at Geffen Playhouse. (Photo: Jeff Lorch)

There’s a lot going on under the surface of Furlough’s Paradise.

On one hand, it’s an archetypal family drama of two estranged cousins who reunite for a funeral and are forced to confront suppressed feelings and resentments.

On the other, it’s a keen poetic manifesto on how two Black women see themselves now and in the utopian future they each envision.

Cousins Sade and Mina grew up together. As adults their paths diverged. Mina enjoys a successful career on the West Coast. Sade ended up in prison. She’s been given a brief reprieve to attend her mother’s funeral.

But three days is hardly enough to repair a lifetime of anger, grief, and resentment aimed at a parent who failed her and a once-close cousin who abandoned her.

The fears and anxieties of the two cousins are expressed as surreal dream scenes. (Photo: Jeff Lorch)

Mina, too, harbors her own repressed emotions and insecurities that will come out during her cousin's brief visit.

Playwright a.k. payne punctuates her poetic text with a series of surreal, vividly-lit, choreographed interludes intended to express the primal anxieties of Sade and Mina.

Emotions are messy things that are hard to understand. So, it follows that these scenes feel incoherent and a bit exasperating. The author is telling us something about her characters, but exactly what?

Both Kacie Rogers, as the buttoned-down Mina who at first glance has it together, and DeWanda Wise, as the tougher but guarded Sade, offer fine performances. Tinashe Kajese-Bolden’s direction is thoughtful.

Furlough’s Paradise is about healing old wounds, longing for love and community, and hoping for a better future. As usual, it all starts with a dysfunctional family. It always does.

“Furlough's Paradise,” Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024, geffenplayhouse.org, (310)-208-2028