Review: 'Seven Guitars'
Michigan premiere of August Wilson drama gets robust staging by Plowshares Theatre
There's some beautiful music coming from the stage of the General Motors Theater at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, but it's not quite what you might expect from a play called "Seven Guitars."
Yes, musical instruments make an appearance in August Wilson's blues-inspired drama – but the music wafting to the rafters doesn't come from them. Rather, it's Wilson's melodic dialogue, lyrically delivered by director Gary Anderson's finely tuned actors, that resonates within the theater's walls.
Some might consider "Seven Guitars" the "concerto grosso" (or "great concerto") of Plowshares Theatre Company's 2003/04 season.
More than 20 years ago, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Wilson set for himself an ambitious goal: to produce a series of 10 plays that chronicles the lives and struggles of black Americans throughout the 20th century. Each would take place in a different decade.
"Seven Guitars" – the sixth in his series – is set in 1948, a time when soldiers home from World War II were busy pursuing the American Dream.
Such is the case with Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton, a smooth-talking, pistol-packing singer and guitar player from Pittsburgh who desires to strike it rich as a recording star. With one hit record under his belt and a contract pending with a Chicago-based studio, Barton isn't satisfied: He also wants the love of a girl he once left behind – and enough money to get his guitar out of hock.
It's also a pursuit to gain the respect Barton feels he's owed from his white manager and the white-run company that released his first record while the singer was "in the workhouse" following his arrest for vagrancy.
But Barton dies before his dreams are realized.
Nothing secret has been revealed here – Wilson opens his play at Barton's funeral. It's what happened during the week preceding Barton's untimely death that's at the center of Wilson's very human drama.
And like real life, the revelation of who killed Barton – and why – might shock you; fate sometimes has a strange – or cosmically ironic – way of teaching valuable lessons!
"Seven Guitars" is not a "whodunit" in the traditional sense; that label would do Wilson's work a great disservice. Instead, it's a blues-flavored tale of an ambitious, but flawed, man who makes choices – some good and some not-so-good – and how those decisions lead to his ultimate demise.
Wilson weaves his nearly three-hour epic into a rich tapestry tied together by its seven unique and fully-developed characters – his 'seven guitars' – who celebrate life through a symphony of laughs and tears, loves and fears; they are vividly portrayed by Anderson's fine ensemble of talented actors.
Markeus Kitts (Barton), Michelle Wilson (Vera), Charlotte J. Nelson (Louise), Cameron Knight (Canewell), Anthony Lucas (Red Carter), Sidney Skipper (Hedley) and Stacey J. Wedd (Ruby) are all to be commended for bringing Wilson's music to our eyes and ears.
If there's a flaw with this production, it's inherent in Wilson's script: At play's end, should the audience leave the theater feeling sad that a promising, young talent died at such an early age? Is Barton to be viewed as a tragic victim who succumbed to the evils of discrimination? Or was he simply a man who paid the ultimate price for the decisions he made throughout his life?
Ambivalence is probably not the emotion Wilson was striving for!
"Seven Guitars" Staged Thursday, Saturday and Sunday by Plowshares Theatre Company at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 E. Warren, Detroit, through June 20. Tickets: $25. 313-872-0279. www.plowshares.org.
The Bottom Line: Even the Pittsburgh neighborhood in which "Seven Guitars" takes place vividly comes to life in this blues-influenced drama.
Review: 'Unspoken Prayers'
A civilized society – or not?
"Would that kid's death give us back Sara?"
If there's one line in Claudia Allen's powerful drama, "Unspoken Prayers" that pretty much sums up its basic argument, it's that one.
Imagine that you're the parent of a sweet and vivacious 16-year-old girl who is brutally raped and murdered by yet another 16-year-old. And what if you lived in a state that allowed capital punishment for such a crime? Would you be willing to have your child's murderer put to death for his horrible act? Or do two wrongs NOT make a right?
Chicago-based playwright Claudia Allen has obviously given "the death penalty" much thought, and the fact that "Unspoken Prayers" – now making its Michigan premiere at the Detroit Repertory Theatre – generously allows both sides of the debate to get a fair hearing is to her credit. It's a tough issue for a civilized society to consider, and it can easily be surmised that Allen's own personal struggle with it is given life through the character of Billie, the dead girl's mother, played with great bravado, sensitivity and conviction by Leah Smith.
Unlike her husband, Frank, who strongly advocates for the death penalty and her college-age daughter, Becca, who stridently opposes it, Billie is initially unsure of which position to take. And given her current state of depression, she's also emotionally ill-equipped to render a decision that could take the life of another human being, albeit one so seemingly evil.
So with the trial rapidly approaching and a district attorney pressing for a decision, Billie decides to visit Death Row. There, she feels, she can discover for herself whether or not it's okay to feel good about putting her daughter's killer to death – knowing it won't bring Sara back from the dead.
What she finds – or more appropriately, who – changes her perspective completely!
Playwright Allen tells her compelling tale in a style that might be initially unsettling for some in the audience. The first several scenes are extremely brief and to the point; there's no wasted exposition found anywhere in this production. But as the play intensifies, the scenes lengthen and the details spill forth.
The language, too, can be somewhat graphic.
Yet with the specter of death hanging so heavily over this production, playwright Allen wisely injects plenty of humor into the script. There's nothing like laughter to help alleviate the tension. (You've never seen a "media circus" quite like the one staged in this production! But then again, maybe you haveÉespecially during television's sweeps month!)
Both the drama's humor and pathos are well staged by longtime DRT and Detroit area veteran Harry Wetzel. He especially understands pacing – especially early on where long blackouts between the brief scenes would kill the production quicker than a bad review ever could.
But it's Wetzel's casting where he especially shines.
Harold Hogan once again turns in a very fine performance as the crusading father who wants his daughter to pay for his evil deed. Ebony McClain plays the virginal and loving Sara without ever becoming sickeningly sweet. And it's easy to believe that My-Ishia Cason-Brown's Becca used to hang with the smokers and the dopers in high school.
Chuck Reynolds, Charlotte Leisinger and Augustus Williamson play multiple roles throughout the show: Reynolds is appropriately creepy as convicted murderer Big Bob; Leisinger tugs at your heart as his mother, Edna; and Williamson's Church Lady is almost too convincingÉbut surely, a sight to behold!
"Unspoken Prayers" Presented Thursday through Sunday at the Detroit Repertory Theatre, 13103 Woodrow Wilson, Detroit, through June 27. Tickets: $17. 313-868-1347. www.detroitreptheatre.com.
The Bottom Line: A well executed production that straightforwardly tackles a serious subject – the death penalty – without forcing the audience to take sides.
