1 post tagged “lorraine hansberry theatre”
It's fitting that the
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's last production in its longtime home
should be August Wilson's "Fences." In its 20 years at its Sutter
Street theater, now slated to become an Academy of Art University
gymnasium, the Hansberry has been the Bay Area company most closely
associated with the late playwright's work, having presented almost all
of his sweeping 10-play cycle of 20th century African American life. True, Artistic Director Stanley E. Williams has staged "Fences"
before, in 1990 on this same stage. But the Pulitzer Prize-winning
"Fences" has always been the most commercially successful play in the
cycle (last week, Best of Broadway producer Carole Shorenstein Hays,
who produced its blockbuster 1987 Broadway run, announced plans to
bring it back there next season). And Williams' fairly solid
production, which opened Saturday, closes an exceptionally strong
season on a note of sustained resonance. The 1950s segment of the cycle, "Fences" is in many respects the
most conventional, which seems fitting (it was a convention-ridden
decade). Wilson's usual broad array of sharply etched characters is
focused more tightly on one - the towering figure of Troy Maxson
(originated by James Earl Jones), the former Negro League home run
king, now a Pittsburgh garbage collector whose bitterness poisons his
roles as father and husband. It's an immensely challenging role and stage and TV actor ("Malcolm
in the Middle") Alex Morris inhabits it with imposing strength,
dignity, dangerously simmering anger and a rich, deep baritone
perfectly suited to Wilson's arias of relived glories and broken
dreams. His performance is bolstered by Elizabeth Carter's deeply
etched portrait of his well-matched wife Rose, and Axel Avin Jr.'s
determination as their son Cory, whose college aspirations are crushed
by his father. "Fences" is Wilson's "Death of a Salesman," with Troy as clueless
about the changing society as Willy Loman, with the added fence of
racism keeping him from the American dream. The drama centers on a
father's dashed hopes perverting his relationship with his sons
(Kieleil Deleon is the good-time, amoral son). Also, like "Salesman," a
friend (Vernon D. Medearis as Bono) vainly tries to help. Adultery
plays a similar - if more cruel - disillusioning role. SOURCE OF THIS STORY
