Two Trains Running
Winner of the 2022 Regional Theatre Tony Award for shepherding spectacular performances to its theatrical platform, Court Theatre is a winner again, bringing famous American playwright August Wilson's play Two Trains Running to its stage. This is Wilson's sixth in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle, which embodies psychological trauma and changing perspectives regarding race through the eyes of African-American characters. Permeating with intensity and a spirit of love, joy, and humor, this play set in the Hill District of Pittsburg probes the perspectival plight of African-Americans, and Wilson's timeless and poignant message is still relevant today.
Two Trains Running takes place in Pittsburg, where Wilson's play typically deals with the economic disintegration and violence in the community, which Wilson believes is a product of his race being disconnected from its roots.
Ron OJ Parsons once again proves why he is one of America's most outstanding directors, masterfully bringing Wilson's Two Trains Running charismatic scintillating dialogue to the stage that is both captivating and exhilarating.
The main storyline centers around seven characters who visit a diner owned by Memphis, facing the redevelopment of a community. As the city begins to demolish the block, Memphis shares his anguish over being forced out and prepares to meet with the city to discuss his demands. He is determined to get no less than $25,000 for his property, who meets with his lawyer to go over his paperwork. But he has a competing offer from West, a funeral director who has built his wealth low-balling other owners into selling their property so he can have a more substantial financial leverage against the city. West's strategy is to place fear into Memphis mind that the city will undercut him and his best option is to sell to him at a much lower amount.
But, Memphis is wise to his game and holds on to his demands. He refers to "two trains running" every day between Pittsburgh and Jackson, Mississippi, where he still has the deed to some farmland as his option after selling his property. He later describes his reason for leaving and coming to Pittsburgh was due to fears of being killed, depicting the historical terror regarding social inequities.
August Wilson's brilliance in highlighting the struggles of the African-American can be seen in Two Trains Running through characters like Risa, a worker at the diner. Her traumatic past of scarring her legs to make herself less attractive is homogeneous to (For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf), who suffered oppression. She disfigures her appearance to deal with the psychological issues of being a woman that every man wants for the wrong reasons. Sterling, recently released from prison, is seeking work battles with being accepted after facing a difficult period of growth from adolescence to manhood. He only wants to reach the American dream or make it higher than what the white believes he can get.
Wilson also lets us look into the soul of characters like Holloway, a elder man of wisdom that believes he has lived a long life staying out of the business of others, and the help of Aunt Ester, who is said to be somewhere between 322 and 349 years. The cool soul-brother with the full afro named Wolf. Wolf, the community's numbers man, can get you whatever you need but struggles with Memphis over his communication needs.
“The numbers give you an opportunity. ”
With one of the most notable lines in the play, "I want my Ham," we meet Hambone. Described as being somewhat mentally challenged, Hamborne shouts out, "I want my Ham," demanding he gets his agreed compensation for work performed. This statement indicates the indignant Wilson's views of his people not receiving justice, respect for their achievements in America, or the problems of forty acres and a mule. Each character vividly converses the experience of people of color living in America.
The cast in Two Trains Running features Kierra Bunch (Risa), Ronald L.Conner (Wolf), Jerod Haynes (Sterling), Joseph Primes (Hambone), A.C. Smith (Memphis), Alfred H. Wilson (Holloway), and Cedric Young (West) are nothing less than phenomenal.
Wilson masterfully manipulates and alters his characters' vocabulary, body language, and phrasing of words to intensify their meaning in each scene. For example, we witness this masterful movement when Memphis, whose frantic and overbearing behavior changes from caring to laughter and even superstition throughout the play. Or the loving, gentle scene where Sterling finally breaks through the distressful pain Risa endures, allowing her to relax, trusting in love again.
Wilson touches on the political unrest in the nation with the flyers and rally for Malcolm X and how these assassinations caused a disenfranchised feeling within our community.
“Two Trains Running is tantalizingly powerful, filled with brilliant dialogue.”
It would be considered hypocritical not to voice my apprehensions regarding Two Trains Running's inflammatory offensive connotations of the N-Word as I did against To Kill A Mockingbird. Both are repugnant, but Wilson's use of the word throughout his canon represents brotherhood and acknowledges the trials and tribulations rooted in race. Although I understand Wilson's methodology, you can't claim ownership of a word, nor can that ownership eradicate its ordinary meaning or usage. However, Wilson's trajectory speaks from the struggles he and we still face in America. Born Frederick August Kittel, he was the son of a white German immigrant, and his mother, Daisy Wilson, was African-American. Wilson would hear and receive notes on his desk, calling from the N-Word as a kid. Barraged with this derogatory behavior daily, Wilson left school without telling his mother and went to the library each day; reading books and the wisdom he received from the streets of Pittsburg provided Wilson with his education. Coming from a hateful childhood of bigotry and racism, Wilson uses these turbulent words as a buffer, tapping into the streets and the memory of the blood of his ancestors to educate audiences about decades of injustice. Two Trains Running is tantalizingly powerful, filled with brilliant dialogue.
Some think that August Wilson's idealogy makes him an angry playwright. And although he admits that life thrown at the African-American can make anyone angry, his plays are met to help heal the soul of a nation, not divide it.
Let's Play Highly Recommends Two Trains Running at Court Theater.
Court Theatre
Two Trains Running
By August Wilson
Directed by Ron OJ Parson
May 13 - June 12, 2022
