Thom Nickels: “Wilderness Generation” balances comedy and confrontation

Let me begin by saying I’ve never seen a James Ijames play. There were many reasons for this. I had always heard that his plays were largely political. 

The popularity of his work, especially in Philadelphia, was for me a distraction: it’s why I don’t read bestsellers or books by writers that sell a zillion copies. Whatever the masses like, can’t be really good.

So when I set out to see the world premiere of Ijames’s “Wilderness Generation” at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, I had a number of reservations, the main one being that the play was going to lecture me.

Sometimes it’s good to be proven wrong.

This extremely funny black family drama and comedy centers around a summer family reunion of sorts, when a group of cousins visit Grandma Bobbie’s family house in the country for a last reunion before the house is closed and sold. Grandma may have had a motive for arranging this “locked in” encounter with this group of cousins: in a confined space, they’d be forced to talk to one another and perhaps resolve serious personal issues.

The PTC stage set of Grandma Bonnie’s house is an architectural stunner. It stands in stark contrast to the ultra-minimalist sets that used to be common only in experimental or what used to be called avant garde theater. 

Every family comes with its own prepackaged drama, dysfunction, and cycles of transgression and forgiveness. This zany family is no exception. 

The cousins don’t all arrive at the house at the same time. First to arrive are Nicole (Jessica Johnson) and Smitty (Brenson Thomas). Nicole pours herself a glass of wine, relaxes on the sofa with Smitty, the gay cousin whose flamboyant wit gets the comedic element flowing. Joining them are Ramona (Heather Alicia Simms) and her current boyfriend, Donovan (Adul Sesay). Ramona, young and in love, is proud of her rapper heartthrob. Rapper Donovan, as the odd man out, is quite content to put on earphones and mentally disengage as the steamy family dynamic builds on stage. 

For a time, the give-and-take funny family banter all seems fairly benign, even when Ramona announces to Smitty that Donovan, her little rapper hunk, may be “a little bit queer.” These appear to be magic words to Smitty; a sort of pantomime follows in which Smitty raises his eyebrows. He wants to hear more, as Ramona warns him not to get any ideas. Smitty questions Donovan on the depth of that queerness. Donovan, without flinching, responds, “Well, maybe if I were stranded [with a man] on a desert island.”

Meanwhile, the wine keeps flowing. Smitty, in a more somber mood, goes to the wall behind the sofa where Grandma Bobbie has a collection of family photographs. He notices there’s no single photograph of himself though all of the other cousins have a single photograph. He only appears in a generic group shot, which doesn’t amount to very much. The implication here is because he’s gay maybe Grandma Bobbie was embarrassed or had some issue about putting his photo up. Families do strange things like this, sidelining gay offspring in subtle ways. 

What struck me about Grandma Bobbie’s house was its presence near a mosquito-filled creek rather than, say, in Avalon, New Jersey or somewhere on Cape Cod. For much of the play, you don’t know where the house is located. I assumed it was near a bay or an ocean but the location turned out to be near a humble creek. Creeks yield minnows, tadpoles, and crayfish, not lobsters, and creeks don’t have beaches, surf and tides or beautiful sunsets. And yet this house still delights because it is much more than a house. It’s the house and its memories that will finally bring this family together. 

The cousins, after all, have been coming here since they were children, so the walls are alive with memories, not all of them pleasant.

That becomes apparent with the entrance of Micah (Lindsay Smiling), who’s been in and out of prison, rehab, you name it, a thoroughly rough around the edges type who was childhood friends with Ramona. Micah is an interesting character, a bumbling gentle giant who has made a lot of mistakes in life, but in this house he will find his way to mend his fractured relationship with Ramona.

In one interview, the playwright stated that ‘Wilderness Generation” is probably the one play people unfamiliar with his work should see. I agree. 

“The thing I do for a living requires me to work on faith and work on imagination,” James continued. “You write a thing that maybe somebody will do. Many plays have never seen the light of day! It’s an act of faith. I wrote this thing that now exists whether someone wants it or not.”

Thom Nickels is Broad + Liberty’s Editor at Large for Arts and Culture and the 2005 recipient of the AIA Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism. He writes for City Journal, New York, and Frontpage Magazine. Thom Nickels is the author of fifteen books, including “Literary Philadelphia” and ”From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia.” His latest work, “Ileana of Romania: Princess, Exile and Mother Superior,” will be published in May 2026.