Hartford Stage Honors Magnificent "Fences"

Vast, poetic and profound, the late August Wilson's "Fences" remains one of the finest plays ever written. Hartford Stage extends the run of Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning drama (inclusive of some comic dialogue) through February 18th. Thereafter, this galvanic production moves along to the Dallas Theater Center and Portland Center Stage in Oregon. If you've not seen it, please do. I was privileged to observe "Fences" when it opened and drew immediate raves reviews at Yale Repertory Theater in spring of 1985; and I saw a fine presentation of the show at Springfield's StageWest early in 1990. With those memories still vivid, I wondered whether it might not be wise to let them be -- and I contemplated passing on the Hartford Stage production. That would have been a serious mistake. Michael Wilson, Stage artistic director, Jonathan Wilson, director of the production, and just a stunning cast bequeath stirring art and passion.

Having reviewed the play earlier, I choose not to replicate. Instead, allow me to quote from the introduction of the first published book version of "Fences." The opening is written by Lloyd Richards, who passed away seventeen months ago. Richards, thought by many to represent either an older brother or father figure to August Wilson, directed the initial production of "Fences." It was Richards who noticed and noted Wilson's writing potential during the early 1980s at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, CT.

Richards writes: "'Fences' encompasses the 1950s and a black family trying to put down roots in the slag slippery hills of a middle American urban industrial city that one might correctly mistake for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"To call August Wilson a storyteller is to align him at one and the same time with the ancient aristocrats of dramatic writing who stood before the tribes and made compelling oral history into legend, as well as with the modern playwrights who bring an audience to their feet at the end of an evening of their work because that audience knows that they have encountered themselves, their concerns, and their passions, and have been moved and enriched by the experience. In 'Fences,' August Wilson tells the story of four generations of black Americans and of how they have passed on a legacy of morals, mores, attitudes, and patterns through stories with and without music.

"He tells the story of Troy Maxson, born to a sharecropper father who was frustrated by the fact that every crop took him further into debt. The father knew himself as a failure and took it out on everyone at hand, including his young son, Troy, and his wives, all of whom 'leave him.' Troy learns violence from him, but he also learns the value of work and the fact that a man takes repsonsibility for his family no matter how difficult circumstances may be. He learns respect for a home, the importance of owning land, and the value of an education because he doesn't have one.

"An excellent baseball player, Troy learns that in the land of equal opportunity, chances for a black man are not always equal, and that the same country that deprived him asked sacrifice of his brother in World War II and got it. Half his brother's head was blown away, and he is now a disoriented and confused beautiful man. He learns that he must fight and win the little victories-given his life-must assume the proportion of major triumphs. He learns that day to day and moment to moment he lives close to death and must wrestle with death to survive. He learns that to take a chance and grab a moment of beauty can crumble the delicate fabric of an intricate value system and leave one desolate and alone. Strength of body and strength of purpose are not enough. Chance and the color of one's skin, chance again, can tip the balance. 'You've got to take the crooked with the straight.'" - Lloyd Richards

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"Fences" bears witness to life, in 1957, in The Hill district of Pittsburgh, where August Wilson lived early on. Designer Scott Bradley's depiction of the Maxson two-story brick house and yard is terrific. Wilson's protagonist Troy (Wendell Wright) is strong, vocal, tempestuous -- and an individual who collects garbage to support his people. Onece, he was a baseball star in the Negro Leagues but never received his shot to play Major League ball.

Rose (Wandachristine) is also strong and vocal; and she is smart, compassionate, and wise. She is very much tuned into the promise of the biological son Cory (Rob Riley) she and Troy try to monitor. Actor Ray Anthony Thomas plays Gabriel, Troy's brother whom Richards in the aforementioned introduction brilliantly desribes. Bono (Don Mayo) is Troy's best friend and confidante, is loving, warm, and most perceptive. Lyons (Che Ayende) is Troy's older son - a product of an earlier marriage. Troy's new daughter is named Raynell (Hannah J. Maximin).

This is a superlative cast and Jonathan Wilson interprets August Wilson's language and intent with vision, scope, and consummate understanding.

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I spent two long mornings, a few decades ago, in New Haven with August Wilson. He drank coffee, smoked cigarettes, answered my questions, spoke from mind and heart. I drank coffee, listened, wrote, and attempted to discover (while I realized this was impossible) the genius of his approach/art/craft -- just how could he be so talented -- what was the secret? This he could not explain.

So, too, I interviewed Richards a few times, the final meeting transpiring at his uptown Manhattan apartment one warm spring afternoon a dozen years back. He was soft-spoken yet his words were precise and the import, for me, indelible.

I recall the day, during the late 1980s, when Eric Hill, then artistic director of StageWest and current theater department chair at Brandeis, and I were discussing the import of August Wilson's early plays. Hill said, "I think Lloyd Richards is really one of the great men of the theater." When Hill staged "Fences," his choice for Troy was actor Ray Aranha, who originated the role of Bono several years earlier at Yale Rep. I listened carefully as Aranha spoke about his affiliation with "Fences."

The linkage continues. I extend praise to to the three Wilsons (August, Jonathan, Michael) who are not related. I attended a Wednesday matinee performance at Hartford Stage. Not a seat was vacant. Attendees included many beyond the age of seventy; and a large array of high school students. "Fences," forever relevant, inspired/inspires all.

www.hartfordstage.org; (860) 527-5151