Must-See
I guess you either like August Wilson or you dont. His plays, each set in a different decade and exploring a different part of the black experience in America, can be heart-rending and polemic. Im neither liberal nor black, but Ive been mezmerized by his work ever since seeing and hearing Ma Raineys Black Bottom. Wilsons works are always great theatre. Joe Turners Come and Gone is the first in the series, and brings into focus the first and second generations of Black Americans not born in slavery, but still very much tied down and anguished by the experiences of the past, as they try to build meaningful lives despite that past. This production is strongly acted and very rewarding. A great night of theatre.

Reviewed by cwpnewpaltz on Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2009

RE:Freewheeling? Try boring and boorish farce
I am a theatre hound. I love serious drama, comedy, musicals. Ive seen all the plays of August Wilson, most of Mamet, laughed out loud at Waiting For Godot which wasnt funny when I read it in college and seen House of Blue Leaves, Bosoms and Neglect and Six Degrees of Separation and enjoyed them all. I HATED A Free Man of Color. I expected some intelligent exegesis of the life of a black freeman in pre-Jeffersonia Louisiana and the consequences of the Louisiana Purchase upon his life. I got a broad, grotesque sex farce. If I had wanted to go to "Noises Off," I woulds have bought tickets to Noises Off. I walked out after the first act. I have never done that in my life. Dreadful

Reviewed by cwpnewpaltz on Thursday, Nov 11th, 2010