Bartlett Sher's directorial conception of August Wilson's magnificent play, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, has opened up the drama to new dimensions that reach far beyond the home of this Pittsburg family in 1911. The innovative, stylized set by Michael Yeargan, with lighting by Brian MacDevitt, is magical and reaches to infinity, and so do we as we experience the lives of people in a boarding house. The acting is deep and believable (except for a young boy who is basically incomprehensible), and the men and women in the cast, including an extraordinary Roger Robinson and Arliss Howard as an outsider/insider, seem totally invested in the characters they play. They live the lives of their characters with such conviction that we are part of a reality. It's delicately directed, building to a spectacular spiritual/theatrical climax to end Act 1, and an even more thrilling one to end the play. It's stunning.
Wilson's play is rich, delicious, inspirational. He is in the elite of American playwriting - along with Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, Horton Foote and Tennessee Williams, and this is one of his very best. Don't miss it.
