By Sandi Masori in San Diego
August Wilson’s Fences, now playing at The Old Globe, is the story of an African-American family in 1957. Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, the entire play is set in the Maxson family’s yard.
The elaborate set by Lawrence E Moten III features the back porch of a house, with a window into the house where we can see Rose (De’Adre Aziza) moving around in the kitchen. In the yard itself we have some benches, boulders, an unfinished fence and a dead tree with a baseball hanging from it for batting practice. The passage of time is shown by the changing colors of the sky.
The fence is what gives the play its name. Throughout the play (and over a few years) Troy Maxson (Dorian Missick) works on building the fence that his wife Rose has requested.
Right from the first moment in the play, we see what incredible actors we are being treated to. When Troy and his friend Jim Bono (Rondrell McCormick) enter the stage, the audience is captivated, even though they’re just talking informally.
We see the love and playfulness between Troy and Rose, and in the beginning think this is just a fun day-in-the-life tale. Troy and Rose tell the story of how they met and the audience gives Rose a big spontaneous round of applause after Troy says that he told her when they first met that he wasn’t the marrying kind, and she responded that she told him if he wasn’t the marrying kind, he better step out of the way so he doesn’t block the view for the man that is the marrying kind. This was only one of the lines that earned her a burst of applause. The audience falls in love with Rose the minute we meet her.
We meet Troy’s brother Gabriel (Donathan Walters), who was injured in the war and is a little crazy, believing that he is fighting hell hounds here on Earth. We also meet Troy’s son from his first marriage Lyons (Mister Fitzgerald), who comes by to ask to borrow some money. We find out that he wasn’t really in Lyons life while he was growing up, and learn later that it was because he was in jail.
Things start to take a turn and we notice that Troy may not be as easy going as he first appears. We see him block his 17-year old son Cory (Omari K. Chancellor) from getting scouted for a football scholarship for college, telling him he better just go to work instead. We find out that he’s taking his brother’s disability money. And just before intermission we learn that he’s having an affair and his mistress is pregnant.
The second half is much more serious and conflict-driven than the first. I won’t tell you more so as not to spoil the experience, but suffice it to say that I left with tears on my cheeks.
The entire cast, save for 10-year old Raynell (Justus Alexander or Ariele Maye Rivers) are equity actors. And it shows. The acting is phenomenal. The characters draw you in and are so real. The way that Sonnenberg directed them to move throughout the yard as they are chit-chatting keeps the action moving and interesting for the eye. It’s a very well done show, and very compelling.
What I really liked about the play is that while it’s a depiction of the Black experience, it’s not just about the Black experience, it’s also about family and family dynamics, as well as about the role of women in the mid-century. There are many different themes at play.
Fences is on the Old Globe’s main stage through May 3.
*
Associate Editor Sandi Masori is a theater and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.