The action hinges on Citizen Barlow (a fine Evan Lewis Smith), a strong yet sensitive young man who has traveled north from Alabama looking for work and thirsting for Ester’s spiritual advice.Įvan Lewis Smith as Citizen Barlow in "Gem of the Ocean." (Craig Schwartz) Caesar Wilks (Chuma Gault), Mary’s brother, is a landlord and local constable who worships the law, delights in lording it over those who lack his worldly power, including his black brethren, and feels thoroughly justified in having once killed a man for stealing a loaf of bread. So is Rutherford Selig (Burt Emmett), an itinerant peddler.īlack Mary (Carolyn Ratteray) is Ester’s housekeeper and protégé.
Solly Two Kings (Kevin Jackson), Eli’s best friend since they were both conductors on the Underground Railroad, is a frequent visitor. Wilson’s themes are sweeping: the aftereffects of slavery, the phenomena of freedom, betrayal, and redemption, the universal urge to lay down our lives for our friends.Įli (Alex Morris) is Ester’s gatekeeper and peacekeeper. That door, during the course of the play, will prove a symbolic “portal between different times: past, present, and future.” It’s the well-kept, lived-in home of a woman whose door, heart, and table are open. The set by Stephanie Kerley Schwartz is wonderful with high ceilings, an upper floor, wood moldings, and a big kitchen. The scene is a Friday evening at 1839 Wylie Ave., Ester’s home in Pittsburgh’s Hill District.
The narrative unfolds four decades after the Civil War and Emancipation. She’s not a stereotype, in other words.Ĭonsequently, you believe her character, the linchpin of the play, and you believe her. She’s not woo-woo, she doesn’t have a schtick, she doesn’t make lame jokes and stage-wink about her age and her heaping powers. Her feet ache, as they would, but she’s put-together, practical, and while not suffering fools gladly, compassionate. With long, white braids, a floor-length patchwork style skirt and a neat weskit, she manages to be both the timeless repository of ancient wisdom and thoroughly of her place and era. Daniel observes, “Memory insists that we go back and claim the past.” And in fact, Veralyn Jones pulls off the part beautifully. “Two hundred and eighty-five?” was my first thought upon reading the description of “Gem of the Ocean.” “This could go either way.”īut as director Gregg T. Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson unfolds the African American legacy in the first chronological episode of his celebrated “American Century Cycle,” a soaring, mystical tale of a man desperate for redemption in 1904 Pittsburgh.Īunt Ester, a 285-year-old “soul cleanser,” sends him on a spiritual journey that dissects the nature of freedom amid oppression and spurs him to take up the mantle of justice. Here’s how Pasadena’s A Noise Within Theater pitches its latest production:
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