Fences
Baseball immortal Josh Gibson died three months before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. August Wilson's drama opens in 1957. Troy Maxson, a Gibson-like character snubbed by the major leagues, shows that although baseball's been desegregated for a decade, the world outside hasn't. Troy is Wilson's, and one of American theater's, most multifaceted creations. Mention a negative and a positive jumps to his defense (and vice versa). Wilson says with Troy, "You got to take the crookeds with the straights." Which is what Antonio T.J. Johnson gives us in Cygnet Theatre's splendid production. He's a lion in a cage, roaring through the bars, and a complex, vulnerable man. Stagings of Fences showcase Troy. Director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg has taken a more rewarding tack: Troy is a big revolving planet, a Jupiter, but his loving, long-suffering wife Rose is the sun. As played by the excellent Sylvia M'Lafi Thompson, Rose is Troy's center. And when he crosses one line too many, she builds an emotional fence between them. The leads deliver all the goods, and so does everyone else on Mike Buckley's brick-walled set, dapple-lit by Eric Lotze. Mark Christopher Lawrence does a special turn as Troy's mentally challenged brother Gabe (who may, or may not, be his angelic namesake). In the end, Gabe swings and misses three times but ends up smashing the deepest home run of all.
Critic's pick.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, March 2, 2008
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 8pm |