Playwright August Wilson immortalized his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by penning a rich exploration of his African-American heritage in a ten play twentieth century cycle of compassion and culture, where each play takes a decade of specific life. From the time he was 14, August Wilson knew he was going to be a writer, capturing the community life of the people, his people, with whom he lived and worked, with voices and characters of those he immersed himself with over the generations.
Thanks to the Hartford Stage, you have the unique opportunity until February 16 to hop aboard “Two Trains Running” to witness one of Wilson’s great modern classics, number seven written in 1969 about urban renewal, change, transition, hoping you get what’s coming to you, evaluating what is your value. Years before, Memphis Lee invested his life savings in a diner at 1621 Wylie Avenue, Pittsburgh that became a successful community center for the neighborhood to gather in and break corn bread. Now the political powers that be are pushing for a restructuring, a new urban renewal and civic center, destroying the old and displacing the citizens, all in the name of progress. What was once thriving is now struggling and Memphis is determined to get what he deserves, a worthy price for the diner that is being stolen from him.
Come meet the loyal souls who stay by Memphis’s side, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., his hardworking waitress but under appreciated Risa, Taji Senior, her unwecomed suitor and recent jail release Sterling, Rafael Jordan, the busy numbers runner Wolf, Postelli Pringle, Holloway, Jerome Preston Bates, who has a comment about everyone and everything in the diner’s reign, West, Jeorge Bennett Watson, who is the prestigious funeral director and has his eye on Memphis’s business interests, and Hambone, David Jennings who in his disoriented way is fixated on getting what he is owed. Looming in the background is Aunt Ester, “a washer of souls,” purported to be 349 years old and a weighty symbol of tragedy and triumph who can foretell the future.
The two trains running in the play are life and death or perhaps love and death. Death is certain and everyone is running to get home, to form connections, to capture the fullness of humanity, to take care of the people in the neighborhood and to celebrate human interaction. Actress Viola
Davis has said of Wilson that his writing is poetry, and “captures our humor, our vulnerabilities, our tragedies, our trauma. And he humanizes us. And he allows us to talk.”
For tickets ($30 and up), call the Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at HartfordStage.org. Performances are Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. on February 12 and February 11 with talk back and Sunday at 2 p.m. with Audio Described Performance Sunday February 15 at 2 p.m.
This classic directed by Gilbert McCauley is a poetic piece that celebrates humanity, taking you on a African-American journey over one of ten decades, by a masterful playwright who has won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama not once but twice.
