Playwright: August Wilson
At: The Goodman Theatre,
170 N, Dearborn
Phone: (312) 443-3800: $30-$50
Runs through: May 24
Gem of the Ocean is the ninth in August Wilson's proposed cycle of 10 plays about African-American experience in the 20th Century, one play per decade (not written chronologically). Now in its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre, it will move to New York this fall.
As usual, Gem of the Ocean is set in the Pittsburgh Hill District ghetto where Wilson grew up (now urban renewed out of existence). It's 1904. The rural poor flock to the city seeking the freedom and equality promised by the Civil War a generation earlier. Instead, they are exploited at substandard wages, and ruthlessly controlled by a Black police officer—the aptly named Caesar—appointed by the white Establishment.
However, the dilapidated mansion of Aunt Esther is a sanctuary. The ancient Hill District holy woman is 285 years old, her age commensurate with slavery in America. Aunt Esther washes troubled souls in spirit journeys combining Christian and pagan African iconography. She welcomes 67-year-old Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a troubled and purposeless young man from Alabama. The faithful Eli is Aunt Esther's gatekeeper and her housekeeper is Caesar's sister, Black Mary.
These elements introduce the conflicts that inform all nine plays: between Christian and African spiritual values; between the ideal of freedom and contemporary urban reality; between personal integrity and social order. In the play's key action, Solly Two Kings rebels against the new slavery enforced by Caesar, as Citizen Barlow becomes Solly's spiritual heir. Almost always unseen in Wilson's plays is the dominant white society that proscribes Black culture and forces it inward, initiating cycles of Black-on-Black exploitation and violence. Yet, Wilson takes care to establish—in this opening play in the cycle—that 'There are good white people' as Solly Two Kings states. Equally important is the concept of Blacks as Americans, as the patriotic title intentionally suggests.
As ever, Wilson's themes are large and his writing is expansive and rambling. It's a three-hour journey before the elements coalesce. Yet his language is rich, rhythmic and riveting, and his detailed characters are thoroughly human. Their aria-like statements of different points-of-view astound and fascinate with power or humor.
Owing to their long association, director Marion McClinton understands that Wilson's work is operatic in nature, and cannot be rushed. The telling—the testimony—is as important as the tale. It's a labor of love for his astute ensemble: Paul Butler (Eli), Kenny Leon (Citizen), Greta Oglesby (Aunt Esther), Raynor Scheine (Selig), Yvette Ganier (Black Mary), Anthony Chisolm (Solly) and Peter Jay Fernandez (Caesar), most of whom are veteran Wilson actors. David Gallo designed the cavernous, dark, moody, tiled and columned mansion, lit by Donald Holder. Constanza Rometo's witty costumes feature natty dress for Caesar and a Union Army coat for Solly.
Wilson may tweak Gem of the Ocean, perhaps providing more information about Citizen and Eli, and making Black Mary more important. But August Wilson—a good bet for a future Nobel Prize—doesn't write bad plays. Gem of the Ocean has only strengths upon which to build.
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