By ADAM CROWE
A Seat on the Aisle
Indiana Repertory Theatre is fighting the mid-winter blues with an excellent production of August Wison’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. The play was the third to be written and the second one in the chronology in Wilson’s American Century Cycle.
As the director Timothy Douglas points out, August Wilson did not initially set out to write 10 complete plays to trace the African American experience through the 20th Century. But by the time he’d finished the third play (Joe Turner), he knew where his work was leading. The Century Cycle centers on life in Pittsburgh, and the best-known pieces include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Fences.
Joe Turner introduces us to the boarding house owned and operated by Seth and Bertha Holly. A staple of cities and towns in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, boardinghouses often served as home for travelers and new residents alike. The Hollys host a variety of guests and we meet them all as the first act spins the multiple storylines that the audience will follow throughout the play. The year is 1911 and many of these characters are people who can remember the lives lived by black slaves in the prior century. Many are still haunted by those memories. Wilson carefully introduces themes of displacement, abandonment, and the search for self.
The cast is beautifully real, led by Keith Randolph Smith and Stephanie Berry as the Hollys. Residents include DeShawn Harold Mitchell as Bynum Walker, and Jaque Jean-Mary as Jeremy Furlow. Act One also introduces us to Herald and Zonia Loomis, (Shane Taylor and Kerah Lily Jackson) a father and daughter in search of Martha, their wife and mother.
Peter Bisgaier as Rutherford Selig with Shane Taylor as Herald Loomis. (Photo by Zach Rosing)
When the play premiered, some critics complained that not much happens over the play’s 150-minute run-time. We spend that time learning of lives lived and what that costs have been. It occurs to me that one could say the same of Thorton Wilder’s Our Town. Multiple stories follow the daily lives of people in a very specific place and time. Like that play, Joe Turner mines the important and trivial parts of living making up the human experience. And like Wilder’s play, Wilson’s poetry and symbolism reach into the audience’s heart and soul.
The set by Tony Cisek is amazing, and lighting by Jason Lynch is more than appropriately moody. Kara Harmon’s costumes and Christopher Darbassie’s sound design add beautiful depth.
Bottom Line: If you are familiar with Wilson’s Cycle, you’ll know you want to hear these stories. If not, do yourself the favor of spending time in 1911 Pittsburgh. Director Douglas and his exceptional cast are telling tales well worth your time.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone runs through Feb. 22 at The Indiana Repertory Theatre in downtown Indianapolis. Tickets are available at irtlive.com.
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