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Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
By August Wilson
Directed by Derrick Sanders
Produced by Congo square Theatre
At the Goodman’s Owen Theatre
170 N. Dearborn
Chicago, IL
Call 312-443-3800, tickets $15 - $37
Thursday & Fridays at 8 pm
Special Thursday matinees at 10:30 am Feb. 8 & 15
Saturdays at 2 & 8 pm
Sundays at 2 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 30 minutes with intermission
Through February 25, 2007
"They arrive carrying Bibles and guitars, their pockets lined with dust and fresh hope, marked men and women seeking to scrape from the narrow, crooked cobbles and the fiery blasts of the coke furnace a way of bludgeoning and shaping the malleable parts of themselves into a new identity as free men of definite and sincere worth." --- August Wilson
“I done already got too many things to forget about”. --- Mattie Campbell
“Each man must find his own song to be free.” --- Bynum
Spellbinding definitive August Wilson saga contains heart and soul
I believe that Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is August Wilson’s finest play. The 1988 work, now in a powerful production by Congo Square Theatre in the Goodman’s Owen Theatre, is a ‘must see’ show. It is rich in African-American folklore and mysticism with fully developed characters; it is a compelling story about the Black’s struggle to find personal identity in the second decade of the 20th Century. With the burden of the scars of slavery still fresh in mind, we see the search for cultural identity played out in 1911 Pittsburgh at the Holly’s boardinghouse. Religion and spirituality sprinkle together as the connections with the past looms heavily as the migration to Northern cities offers hope for a better life.
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Seth Holly (the likeable Aaron Todd Douglas) and Bertha Holly ( the sweet Taron Patton) run a boardinghouse. Seth is an entrepreneur who hand-makes pots and pans while dreaming of running a small manufacturing plant. Bertha is runs the boardinghouse. They are Northern raised African-Americans, the children of freed Blacks. Their boarders are Rueben Mercer (Scott Baity, Jr.), an itinerant young laborer from the South who dreams of traveling the country playing his guitar with a good woman. Bynum Walker (the charming Allen Gilmore) is an African conjurer (one who summons a spirit by sorcery) whose ‘binder’ powers speaks to the African mystic traditions. He states: “Each man must find his own song to be free.” He helps Mattie Campbell (Tracey Bonner) understand that her man will not return to her and prescribes that she place a bag of roots under her pillow for good luck.
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When the eerily commanding Herald Loomis (Javon Johnson in an overpowering performance) arrives with his young daughter Zonia (Jasmine Randle), the boardinghouse’s contentment is shaken. Loomis is a brooding man who is desperately searching for his lost wife so he can start his life over. He was captured by Joe Turner and enslaved for seven years in Tennessee. He possesses unseen powers that overwhelms him at times. His search is really a quest to find his ‘song,’ his personal identity. His interaction with Bynum offers wonderful insights into the ritualized suffering by Blacks from their entrance into slavery to their perilous journey across the ocean to the horrors of slavery in the South. Loomis and Bynum personify the ritualized pain of that experience. We marvel at the myths of these troubled souls. Wilson’s story telling is rich in these traditions. You’ll not soon forget either Loomis or Bynum.
The play has warm-hearted moments, humor and a mysteriously high dramatic element that entangles us into the African-American experience. We see the occupants of the boardinghouse, after a fried chicken dinner on a Sunday night, perform an African “juba” –a traditional hypnotically rhythmic song with household items as percussion instruments. The chants compel the woman to dance and vent to the spirits both Christian and pagan. The emotions of the juba overwhelms Harold Loomis as Bynum talks him down in a sort of exorcism for his painful Middle Passage experience as he relives his past pain and the pain of his ancestors.
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The title, Joe Turner ‘s Come and Gone is based on the 1978 artwork, “Mill Hand’s Lunch Bucket” and the blues song, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” by legendary blues singer W. C. Handy. This play is the second chronological work of August Wilson’s ten play cycle depicting the American experience in each decade of the 20th Century. It effectively bridges the gap between the post slavery experience and the migration of Blacks to the North in the early 20th Century.
The lyrical, often mesmerizing poetic language by Wilson, together with his unique characterizations, makes Joe Turner’s Come and Gone a master work of American theatre. We learn, as do the characters, to honor our past as we appreciate our past traditions. This is an important as well as beautiful piece of theatre. I learned much about the early myths and traditions and pains of the past African-American experiences.
Allen Gilmore’s Bynum and Javon Johnson’s Harold Loomis are riveting characters delivered in fantastic, tour de force performances by two giants of the stage. This production is one of the finest nights of theatre I’ve ever experienced! Do not miss this masterpiece. Theatre doesn’t get any better.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: January 29, 2007
Jeff Recommended
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