|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
Spiritual Odyssey: August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone
| Article
# : |
12025 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1987 |
1,303 Words |
| Author
: |
Michael Marshall
Michael Marshall is executive editor of THE WORLD & I. |
August Wilson, one of America's outstanding playwrights, has boldly moved into new creative areas in his latest work, Joe Turner's Come and Gone. This play continues Wilson's exploration of the quest for black-American identity. Joe Turner carries forward with unexpected force what will eventually form a play cycle dramatically encompassing the history of black America through the twentieth century.
Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, set in the 1920s, deals with the exploitation of black musicians. Fences, set in the 1950s, examines the simmering tensions that boiled over in the 1960s. His upcoming play, The Piano Lesson, is set in the 1930s, while two earlier plays cover the 1940s and 1970s.
Wilson's focus on history springs from his concern for identity. How can you know who you are and where you should go if you do not know where you came from? In Ma Rainey and Fences, Wilson examined the paths leading into the dominant culture represented by music and sport, respectively, and rejected them as inadequate.
A New Direction
Joe Turner searches in a new direction. Set in 1911 in a Pittsburgh boardinghouse, the play reaches further back in time. The quest here turns inward, into the black community and, ultimately, into the soul - looking back to Africa from a sustaining tradition.
The large-scale migration and accompanying dislocation of blacks from the rural South to northern industrial cities, just developing at the time, form the social setting
... (2000 of 7487 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
