REVIEW: Final weekend to see TheatreWorks' dazzing production of 'Joe Turner'
Sometimes you go to classics because you feel you should.
August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” certainly counts as a work of that voltage, but TheatreWorks’ production isn’t that kind of take-your-medicine proposition.
Like the other works in Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning 10-play “Pittsburgh Cycle,” it plumbs the depth of what it means to be human, African-American and adrift in a world that doesn’t think it owes you a thing. This is a show you’ll want to see for the sheer power of the experience.
Director Clinton Turner Davis, his cast and crew knock out three hours of powerhouse performances. It was downright magical.
It’s Pittsburgh 1911. Seth and Bertha Holly (Cris Davenport and Lynne Hastings) run a successful boarding house. Life isn’t easy, but the humdrum dramas that come through their doors are sweet and familiar, the stuff of people searching for themselves and their places in the world.
Harold Loomis (Calvin Thompson) is on a long quest for his wife when he and his pigtailed daughter (Sanaa Ford) walk into these well-ordered lives. Loomis’ dark story explains his journey as well as the dark, brutal force he telegraphs with every breath.
By the end, the many subplots converge into gorgeous symmetry.
Director Davis paints a lush and powerful picture, using tableaus at key moments to almost painterly effect. It’s furthered by flawless technical support from Tonya Moake Neely’s lighting, sound by Alex Ruhlin, Matthew Myhrum’s spot-on set design and Clare Henkel’s painstakingly executed costumes.
The first act does its job by introducing us to the players in Wilson’s snapshot of a generation barely 50 years out of the Civil War and slavery. Davenport’s one-note delivery — every conversation is dialed in to 10 — slows the act and creates questions about what the play is really about.
Act II is a completely different story. In fact, it’s hard to look away.
This is an astonishing cast and at times I found myself forgetting that they’d said every line at least a dozen times at rehearsals. Two performances were unforgettable.
Thompson, who plays Loomis, delivers pathos and rage, yearning and confusion with force and commitment. Every word, every silence boils with barely restrained violence. I was blown away.
While Thompson was a juggernaut, Hastings as Bertha was quietly dazzling. She swims through the world of the play like a woman who was born to it. Simply put, she was luminescent. Although Hastings is a veteran of the theater community, we haven’t seen much of her recently. I hope this signals her return to area stages.
Similarly, I’m hopeful that director Davis won’t be limited to Black History Month productions. His skill is evident. It’s a shame that we don’t see his work more often.
