Linda Buchanan’s exaggerated perspective, wooden slats set design was at one point a structure, the next a textured slave ship prison. Robert Perry’s bold lighting partnered with “City of Bones” slave ship projection, designed by Mike Tutaj, impressed. Charles does more with her signature side eye on stage than Wilson could have ever imagined when writing this character and we are all the better for it.Īs Citizen Barlow worked his way to his own eventual redemption, the creative team’s work shone as well. Smith) and a stoic housekeeper named Black Mary (Sydney Charles) prone to a few well-timed and well-received act two outbursts. She’s looked after and protected by caregiver, Eli (A.C. This sage/conjurer/witch doctor of a character with the reputation and perceived ability to “wash men’s souls of their burdens.” Hers is the moral compass that doesn’t always point due north, but has a lasting impact on all who came within her contact. A powerful knocking at the door from an anguished Citizen Barlow (Sharif Atkins) desperately trying to get a meeting with the mysterious Aunt Ester (Lisa Gaye Dixon) a wise women rumored to be 285 years old. The world was full of harsh realities of the post slavery years, the South desperately holding on to its racial divides, the North not as welcoming as promised. Williams, Sydney Charles and Sharif Atkins Photo by Liz LaurenĪll of the action was set in the Hill District living room of 1839 Wylie Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Director Chuck Smith expertly wove the threads of Wilson’s words and a remarkable ensemble of actors into a winning tapestry of redemption, revelation and heartbreak.Ī.C. Be forewarned, being an August Wilson play, there was some raw language, but for those familiar with his work, that’s to be expected. This timeline included Gem of the Ocean set in 1904, the roaring twenties of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Tony Award-winner Fences set in the 1957, the turbulent sixties reflected in Two Trains Running and King Headley II unfolding in 1985. Two of which became Pulitzer Prize-Award winners. He championed Black performers, speaking in Black voices, produced by Black creative teams and lead that cherished philosophy to both creative and commercial success. Of note, the Goodman Theatre has produced all 10 works in Wilson’s “Century Cycle,” a series of interconnected plays chronicling the Black experience in America. For those not in the know, August Wilson was a Pittsburgh-born playwright who outspokenly understood the importance of race in artistry decades before it became in vogue. Ocean marked the first time in the theatre’s history that the Goodman has revisited one of Wilson’s works that had previously premiered there.
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