at the same time that Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
was reaching the production stage.
FENCES (1986) surpassed even Ma Rainey’s
success. The play about a former Negro Leagues
ballplayer, Troy Maxson, and his family also first
appeared at Yale. The work went on to garner the
Tony for Best Drama, the New York Drama Critics
Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in
- The play featured the respected actor James
Earl Jones as Troy. With Fences and Ma Rainey’s
Black Bottom, Wilson not only established him-
self as America’s most significant playwright but
initiated his historical cycle of plays meant to re-
flect African-American life in each decade of the
20th century. Fences captured the world of the
1950s, while Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom explored
the 1920s.
Often compared to Death of a Salesman, with
Troy Maxson as its Willy Loman, Fences critiqued
the American dream at its core: the game of base-
ball. Though Troy was once a star in the Negro
Leagues, he could never play America’s sport in
the majors because of race discrimination and seg-
regation. His son, Cory, now has an opportunity
to win a football scholarship, which his father op-
poses. Still bitter about his own inability to break
the color barriers, Troy is torn between wanting to
protect his son from the pain he endured and en-
vying his son’s future promise. The two engage in
bitter arguments, and throughout the play Wilson
uses the building of a fence around the home as
a symbolic testament to the social and historical
forces that have “fenced” in Troy. By the play’s final
act, Troy has helped destroy his own son’s dreams
and estranged himself from Cory and his mother,
Rose. The closing scene, Troy’s funeral, signals the
waste and anger that has controlled his life because
of racism.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1988) continued
the historical cycle. Set in 1911, the work won nu-
merous nominations for its portrayal of African
Americans in search of an African past in the midst
of a changing America. The main character, Her-
ald Loomis, is a former minister. Wrongfully taken
and forced to work by the governor of Tennessee’s
brother, Joe Turner, on a chain gang, Loomis is
psychically scarred by his experience and blames
Christianity. It is only by reconnecting to his Af-
rican spiritual roots through the juba dance that
he is healed.
Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize again for his next
drama, The Piano Lesson (1990). Based on a Ro-
mare Bearden painting, the play follows the Charles
family as they come to terms with their past. They
represent a people who have forgotten their music
and thus their heritage and history. Linked by
a piano that was once owned by the family that
held them as slaves, the Charleses must exorcise
the “ghosts” of slavery and embrace their ancestral
voices. Set in 1937, the play also characterizes the
hardships that African Americans suffered during
the Depression. The two principals, Boy Willie and
Berniece—brother and sister—view the piano as a
symbol of family values. For Boy Willie, the piano
represents financial security. By selling it, he will
be able to afford to buy land that was once worked
by his ancestors. Berniece fights with him, refusing
to let the piano ever leave their family’s possession.
For her it stands as a reminder of everything the
family has lost. Both come to realize that the piano
is far more valuable: Carved into its wood is the
history of the Charles family. Their past—its pain
and its joy—is meant to be remembered, cher-
ished, and celebrated.
Two Trains Running (1993), set in the 1960s in a
rundown diner, and Seven Guitars (1995) have also
seen successful runs in New York. Seven Guitars
follows the life of blues musician Floyd Barton and
covers the decade of the 1940s in Wilson’s cycle.
King Hedley II, which premiered in Philadelphia
in 2003, was followed by Gem of the Ocean (2004),
which had a very brief run on Broadway. Wilson’s
final play, Radio Golf (2005), premiered by the Yale
Repertory Theater, is scheduled to open on Broad-
way in 2007. Radio Golf deals with redevelopment
in the black community as a venue for blacks to
achieve the American dream. It completes Wilson’s
10-play cycle. Wilson died of cancer in 2005.
Praised for his “musical language” and his
blending of myth, memory, and history, Wilson
has remained the most powerful American dra-
matic voice for almost the last 20 years. He received
a Guggenheim for his achievements on the stage in- Reaching the ranks of Tennessee Williams,
556 Wilson, August