Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C.

Fences
Ford's Theatre
Review by Susan Berlin | Season Schedule

Also see Susan's review of School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play


Doug Brown, Jefferson A. Russell, Erika Rose,
and Craig Wallace

Photo by Scott Suchman
Craig Wallace returns to Ford's Theatre in Washington in another monumental role, Troy Maxson in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences, and he gives a performance as nuanced and explosive, by turns, as a theatergoer could want. (His previous lead roles at Ford's include Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and has annual appearance as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.)

Fences was one of the first to be produced in Wilson's Century Cycle of 10 plays, each one examining the African-American experience in a specific decade of the 20th century. This play is less a continuous story than a series of scenes that build to a resolution, but the joy of Wilson's writing is how he can use words to conjure up a specific world. His characters express themselves in down-to-earth yet lyrical speeches that define them and the society to which they belong.

Troy is a garbage collector in 1957 Pittsburgh, working alongside his friend Jim Bono (Doug Brown) and looking after his wife Rose (Erika Rose) and teenage son Cory (Justin Weaks). Once a baseball player in the Negro Leagues, Troy keeps going day by day, all the while resenting the fact that segregation kept him from a chance at playing in the major leagues.

Cory is a promising high school athlete who has a chance to attend college on a football scholarship, but Troy doesn't trust white men with contracts. That conflict is the key to their relationship: Cory asks if his father likes him and Troy says he doesn't have to like Cory, it's simply his responsibility to take care of him and his mother.

Under Timothy Douglas' direction, Wallace dominates even in scenes where he doesn't have to. Rose (the character) can be fiery, especially in her second-act showdown when she tries to settle accounts with Troy, but Rose (the actor) never heats up that much; she's less angry and more beaten-down, finally striking back in frustration and recriminations.

Weaks does a solid job as Cory, only able to accept his father in full after spending years discovering himself. Douglas has gathered several familiar Washington actors for the supporting roles: Doug Brown as Troy's friend Jim Bono, even-tempered and a counterbalance to Troy's emotional excesses; KenYatta Rogers as Troy's older son Lyons, who lives for playing music; and Jefferson A. Russell as Troy's brother Gabriel, who came home from World War II with a brain injury and is delusional yet has oddly lucid moments.

Lauren Helpern has created a poetic scenic design that melds the imaginative—a graceful, curving tree—with a photographic backdrop of the neighborhood.

Ford's Theatre
Fences
September 27th - October 27th, 2019
By August Wilson
Jim Bono: Doug Brown
Lyons Maxson: KenYatta Rogers
Rose Maxson: Erika Rose
Gabriel Maxson: Jefferson A. Russell
Troy Maxson: Craig Wallace
Cory Maxson: Justin Weaks
Raynell Maxson: Janiyah Lucas or Mecca Rogers
Directed by Timothy Douglas
511 Tenth St., NW
Washington, DC
Ticket Information: 202-347-4833 or http://fords.org

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