Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding, June 16, 2005
August Wilson is the greatest American playwright. Not the greatest living American playwright, but the greatest, period. His best plays stand comparison with the best work of Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams. No American playwright has produced such a consistent body of work, and no American playwright has attempted a cycle with the scope and ambition of his series of plays. Wilson's subject is the Great Migration, the story of the African-Americans who emigrated from the southern states to the cities of the industrial North and their slow construction of satisfactory lives in the difficult and changing world of 20th century America. Wilson has written 10 plays on this subject, one for each decade of the 20th century, amounting to a fictional history of African-Americans in the urban North. This is, however, history from below. Wilson's heroes are garbagemen, short-order cooks, day laborers, self-taught musicians, and street vendors. One of his great gifts is his ability to use common speech in a way that is consistently interesting, frequently eloquent, and often powerful. He gives poetic voice to people usually regarded as inarticulate and invests ordinary struggles with real but not exaggerated significance. The African-Americans of Wilson's plays are a doubly uprooted people. Uprooted initially by the grievous trauma of slavery that sundered their connection with their native traditions, the emigrants fleeing the Jim Crow south and its brutal racism are uprooted also from their homes, families, and the traditions developed in the aftermath of slavery.
Wilson's overall story is the reconstruction of African-American identity and family life in the cities of the North over the course of the 20th century. Wilson's plays often feature protagonists whose sense of identity and families have been damaged greatly by the oppressions of racism and the atomizing effects of the industrial economy of the North. Over the course of the cycle, Wilson shows characters re-establishing a sense of connection with their ancestors, even back to Africa, and gradually developing the family ties to sustain them. Wilson repeatedly uses supernatural elements in his work, particularly as a device to advance his theme of the importance of developing a sense of historic connection with ancestors, including those originally abducted from Africa. This could easily be hokey, but his matter of fact use of these elements is very effective. Another recurring theme is the importance of music, particularly the Blues tradition developed by African-American musicians, which he sees as a vital and creative force in African-American life, often carrying truths across generations. Some of the most affecting parts of Wilson's work are his demonstrations of the direct and indirect destructive effects of American racism on family life. Even more powerful are those scenes in which his characters overcome these obstacles to reaffirm family connections.
Not all of Wilson's plays are outstanding, but all are at least very good. Readers will differ on their favorites. In my opinion, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Fences, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom are outstanding. The rest vary from excellent (The Piano Lession) to the very good. Cumulatively, they are a really impressive achievement. Mention must be made of the fact that Wilson has been aided by outstanding collaborators. Wilson's plays usually go through a series of versions before the final version emerges. Wilson has had the benefit of working with unusually talented directors, notably the gifted Lloyd Richards, who was responsible in large measure for recognizing Wilson's talent. Wilson has benefited also from the existence of a whole generation of remarkably talented African-American actors. These people made it possible for Wilson to realize his vision. We have all been the beneficiaries of the work of Wilson and his collaborators.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing characters, wonderful historical stories, October 25, 2004
Lauded as one of the greatest African American playwrights, August Wilson, born in 1945, has earned numerous Tony nominations and awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes for "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson".
Who He Is:
He is known for his "poetic poetry" in language while the blues music plays a significant role in his work. In this book is a thorough understanding called, "August Wilson's Blues Poetic" by Paul Carter Harrison. Meanwhile, a lengthy preface by Wilson provides insight into his experience as a playwright.
Ten of Wilson's plays, chronicle decades of African American heritage and experience. In this book, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" covers the twenties, "Fences", the fifties; and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" explores the turn of the century.
The only thing better than reading Wilson's plays is to SEE them performed, complete with the vernacular - the spoken language of an area. If you have ever believed that you have had no interest in theatre plays, rethink that notion and see the work of August Wilson.
Ma Rainey:
The scene for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", takes place in a recording studio in 1927 where two white music executives are making a record of blues singer, Ma Rainey and a group of musicians.
Because the focus is on four male band members. It may take a while to try to put a face with each character, but within a short time, you grasp who the characters are - their values, beliefs and fears.
Ma Rainey's tone of voice is profound and nobody can push her around. Some critics report that Ma Rainey was exploitive and abusive to her band members, but I certainly did not get that impression. She was just tough and she knew how important her role was in blues music!
During rehearsal, the members share their experience in racist America and where they are now with racist treatment. A dramatic ending caps when the most bitter player reacts violently when another member steps on his shoes.
Prize Winning "Fences":
The Pulitzer Prize, "Fences" takes place at the home of Troy Maxson, a garbage collector who felt cheated of fame as a baseball player by a white system. Troy is set to build a fence around his property and symbolically, the fence stands for his protection from the outside. He contains what he earned and seeks to keep out any evil. Troy's conflict is with his younger son who is about to be recruited with a football scholarship. Troy dissuades the boy by instilling the value and certainty of life is only with hard labor.
Joe Turner:
The setting for "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" takes place in a boarding house where owners Seth and his wife operate with strict rules for the many transients. Joe Turner is not a character in the play, but a man who enslaved Harold Loomis, the main character, for years. Now Loomis tries to find his wife. This is a wonderful story with folklore, blues, spirituality and identity, which is metaphorically referred to as a "song".
These plays are wonderful and it's difficult to say which is best, because they are so different. ...MzRizz
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm Mildly Disappointed, December 2, 2008
August Wilson is hot these days in the theater communities near me. I've seen two of the plays in this book - Joe Turner & Fences - in the last six months, performed well and enthusiastically received by predominantly white audiences. I enjoyed both evenings. Oddly, my wife, who is the live theater buff in the family, thought both plays were too wordy and static. I found myself defending a theater of words, the theater inherited from O'Neil, Ibsen, Shakespeare. My disappointment was not a matter of stage-craft, but of content.
Are Wilson's plays clever? Yes, but no more clever than films like Barbershop.
Do Wilson's play capture the savor of African-American dialect and humor? Yes, but in a stereotypical fashion that adds little to the legacy of such humor, starting from Joel Chandler Harris. Frankly I kept hoping he'd stretch more, surpass the condescending Amos 'n Andy exaggerations that play so amusingly on stage.
Do Wilson's plays have profundity? Hmm... That's the main question, isn't it? Critics write about Wilson's vision of the tragedy of the Southern Blacks abandoning their agrarian world to migrate north into an industrial/urban world where they were unwelcome and spiritually lost. In other words, Wilson could be seen as another Wendell Berry, of a different complexion but equally mystico-sentimental, or as proof of William Faulkner's racialist faith in the innate rightness of staying in your place, and true to 'what you are.' Well, well, of course, for us relativistic post-modernists, all profundities are created equal.... but some are more equal than others. I don't find Wilson's plays as deep as the author apparently did, but they're a welcome change from the assaultive triteness of David Mamet and Co.
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by August Wilson
by August Wilson
by August Wilson
by August Wilson
by August Wilson
