I recently saw August Wilson's wonderful play, "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," in the Lincoln Center production now on Broadway. I prepared for it in advance—reading the play and exploring the themes addressed by Wilson in this second of his ten-play series portraying black life each decade through the 20th Century.
What a payoff! Joe Turner, first of all, was the brother of a Tennessee governor who kidnapped blacks early in the last century to work on his chain gang for seven year's hard labor. He is not a character in the play, but represents racism in the South after blacks were supposedly freed from slavery.
This was Wilson's favorite play. I can certainly see why. It's a rich, poetic rift on racial and African life in the last century. The cast is remarkable, but Roger Robinson as Bynum Walker, was a standout. He's an African rootworker—a conjurer who has the power of the Binding Song. He acts as a spiritual adviser to those who live in a boarding house in Pittsburgh in 1911.
Bynum tells Herald Loomis, who was captured by Joe Turner, that he has forgotten his song and must find it and sing it to become free again. After slashing himself with a knife, Herald discovers his song.
In my opinion, August Wilson is one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th Century. My favorite of his plays, "Gem of the Ocean," was one of the great theatrical events I've ever witnessed. With so much commercial junk on Broadway these days, I hope "Joe Turner" finds a worthy audience. It's a rich show that deserves our attention.
It was a Sunday afternoon, in December, 2004, when I walked out of a Sunday matinee. I looked across the street to another theatre and saw a man standing there alone. I instantly recognized that it was August Wilson. Amazingly, I was the only one to notice him. I crossed the street and introduced myself. He was quite friendly and told me he never liked to watch the endings of his plays. He had come outside in order to avoid the end of the premier of "Gem of the Ocean." Once the show was over, and the street filled with people, he allowed me to take his picture.
