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Last night I saw the revival of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone--a rich and moving play that deals with several aspects of the African American experience in the north in 1911.
The play takes place in a boarding house run by a perfectly matched middle aged couple--the husband works the night shift --I'm not clear what he actually does--but what he lovingly does in his spare time is make pots and pans out of sheet metal and sell his work to people in town and to an itinerant (white) salesman. The salesman who is welcomed when he comes every Saturday and does a side business of "finding people" reveals in one scene that he used to capture runaway slaves and return them to their owners. (although he doesn't seem old enough to have done so).
One of the boarders is Bynum, an elderly "root man"--who practices, not exactly voodoo but some version of it HooDoo and claims he can "bind" people to each other.
Another boarder is a young man who does road work --he's kind of a hot head, very young and outraged at his treatment by the police (who arrest him for drinking in public). He's also a flirt and is interested in any woman that crosses his path.
A mysterious man and his young daughter come to town looking for the man's wife and stay in the house as well. I don't want to provide spoilers so I'm going to be careful from here on. The man--always in black --wears a long black duster, is quick to anger and take offense and is not very good company through most of the play. We find out why in the second act.
A young woman pines for the man who left her because he believes her cursed--after both babies she has dies at only a month or two. She visits Bynum in the hopes she can help her get back her husband and bumps into the young man who lives at the boarding house.
Last into the mix comes a sexy, flirtatious good time gal just looking for a man to hang around with but who obviously wants nothing more serious than that.
I've seen other plays by Wilson: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Radio Golf--I don't believe I've seen the others. I know that each one covers a different decade in the African American experience. For me, this is the best by far (of the three above). Radio Golf while good and also interesting, was "thin" compared to Joe Turner.... I think it's the historical period Wilson covers in the play that makes it so powerful--it takes place less than fifty years after slavery was abolished-- the migration of many southern blacks north to a "better" place; the continuing harassment, taking advantage of, little and big cruelties of some whites towards blacks, etc.
The production is excellent--great sets and lighting (the storm scenes shown by changing the light on the backdrop are breathtaking). The acting wonderful.
If you can, go see it.
The play takes place in a boarding house run by a perfectly matched middle aged couple--the husband works the night shift --I'm not clear what he actually does--but what he lovingly does in his spare time is make pots and pans out of sheet metal and sell his work to people in town and to an itinerant (white) salesman. The salesman who is welcomed when he comes every Saturday and does a side business of "finding people" reveals in one scene that he used to capture runaway slaves and return them to their owners. (although he doesn't seem old enough to have done so).
One of the boarders is Bynum, an elderly "root man"--who practices,
Another boarder is a young man who does road work --he's kind of a hot head, very young and outraged at his treatment by the police (who arrest him for drinking in public). He's also a flirt and is interested in any woman that crosses his path.
A mysterious man and his young daughter come to town looking for the man's wife and stay in the house as well. I don't want to provide spoilers so I'm going to be careful from here on. The man--always in black --wears a long black duster, is quick to anger and take offense and is not very good company through most of the play. We find out why in the second act.
A young woman pines for the man who left her because he believes her cursed--after both babies she has dies at only a month or two. She visits Bynum in the hopes she can help her get back her husband and bumps into the young man who lives at the boarding house.
Last into the mix comes a sexy, flirtatious good time gal just looking for a man to hang around with but who obviously wants nothing more serious than that.
I've seen other plays by Wilson: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Radio Golf--I don't believe I've seen the others. I know that each one covers a different decade in the African American experience. For me, this is the best by far (of the three above). Radio Golf while good and also interesting, was "thin" compared to Joe Turner.... I think it's the historical period Wilson covers in the play that makes it so powerful--it takes place less than fifty years after slavery was abolished-- the migration of many southern blacks north to a "better" place; the continuing harassment, taking advantage of, little and big cruelties of some whites towards blacks, etc.
The production is excellent--great sets and lighting (the storm scenes shown by changing the light on the backdrop are breathtaking). The acting wonderful.
If you can, go see it.
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