Review: Fences at Seattle Rep Theatre
(L-R) James A. Williams, Kim Staunton, Craig Alan Edwards,and William Hall Jr. in Fences. Photo by Chris Bennion
Seattle Repertory Theatre is celebrating the 25th anniversary of August Wilson’s play Fences. A story about baseball and family. This play is being staged in a number of notable productions across the country including on Broadway. Seattle Rep and Syracuse Stage are co-promoting the play and after its run here the Seattle production heads to Syracuse.
The choice of Director Tim Bond for this play is a celebration in its self. Mr. Bonds not only knew the late playwright who died in 2005, he’s also directed a number of Wilson’s plays and had the pleasure of Mr. Wilson’s comments regarding some of his efforts. For eleven years, Mr. Bond was the artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Prior to that, he worked with Seattle Group Theatre.
In August Wilson’s plays, spanning a 10- play cycle of 21st century African-American life, each play set in a different decade and are examples of the very best that theatre has to offer. His plays have been compared to Shakespeare and once you have sat through one of his plays you understand why. His stories are rich in the language of lushness, his sober monologues and the actors speaking such exuberant words seem to jump off the stage and into your mind and heart. He had a a way of writing that draws you in. I met Mr. Wilson two times, once at a reading at Elliot Bay and another time at the Magic Dragon on Broadway. For a highly honored playwright with numerous awards including Pulitzer Prize and Tony Awards he was always quiet and unassuming soft spoken gentleman.
Stephen Tyrone Williams and Shiann Rush in Fences.Photo by Chris Bennion.
The story set in 1957, is about Troy Maxson (James A. Williams), a garbage collector who has abandoned his dreams of being a professional baseball player. His son, Cory (Stephen Tyrone Williams) is sixteen and wants to pursue his goal of being a professional football player. He has a football recruiter interested in signing him up. The conflict is that for the father his dreams and desires were never fulfilled because of the racism of the times that barred blacks from the major leagues. Troy is very bitter about his life in general, and does not want his son to suffer what happened to him.
Once I was seated, the production team started to set the mood with some wonderful music, down home blues (ass-kicking) such as Jimmy Reed, Howling Wolf with lyrics such as “I want to make love to you, while the moon is shining bright.” It helped set the stage. The backyard and porch of Troy and his wife Rose (Kim Staunton) house in the Hill district of Pittsburgh adds to the barely-getting-by living payday-to-payday reality.
The comic and tragic aspects of Fences is upheld with the remaining characters who are Jim Bono (William Hall Jr), Troy’s best friend and drinking buddy on payday Fridays, his older son by another women Lyons (Jose A. Rufino) and his brother Gabriel (Graig Alan Edwards) who suffered a head wound in the WW II. Wonderful performances by the whole cast with this rich material.
One scene which had me and others saying bravo, occurred between Rose and Troy, during a time after he’s admitted to cheating on her and the other women has had a baby by Rose’s husband. The other woman dies in childbirth and Troy brings home the infant, asking Rose to care for the baby. She states from this point she will be the mother to this baby and not a wife to him.
Another scene that is so tragic is when Cory asks his father, “why don’t you like me?” The answer has all the hurt and feelings of living in a world with a color barrier and what it does to people.
The Seattle Rep is the only theatre to have fully produced all of August Wilson’s plays. Mr. Wilson was much loved in Seattle and with justification for his plays and the legacy he left behind. I have seen eight August Wilson plays with two more to go. Not once have I been disappointed. If you have not had the opportunity to see a August Wilson play, this is your chance.
Fences plays from now until April 18, 2010 at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Tickets range from $15-$59 but anyone 25 and under may purchase tickets for only $12 for any performance (with ID – call for details). For more info and tickets, visit www.seattlerep.org.
– Ethel W.
