When I was in New York City a few months ago, I saw signs for the Broadway revival of
Joe Turner's Come and Gone, with some big names attached, but I'd rather see it at Penumbra Theatre right here in St. Paul.
Joe Turner was the 4th play written by August Wilson in his Pittsburgh Cycle of ten plays, each taking place in a different decade, chronicling the Black American experience throughout the 20th Century. The second play chronologically, it takes place in Pittsburgh in the 1910s, but was written in the 1980s when August Wilson was living in St. Paul, working closely with Penumbra.
This is the 4th of the ten plays I've seen, all at Penumbra, and there's nowhere better to see his work than at one of his artistic homes, directed by Penumbra founder Lou Bellamy who was his close collaborator, performed by actors who have spoken his words and inhabited his characters many times.
Joe Turner's Come and Gone continues at Penumbra Theatre through June 21.
 |
Seth (James Craven) and Bertha (Tonia Jackson) in the kitchen
of their boarding house (photo by Caroline Yang Photography) |
The title comes from a song based on the brother of a governor of Tennessee who ran a chain gang, essentially continuing the practice of slavery. Joe Turner is not a character in this play, more of a mythical figure that represents an idea, an idea of the dangers for Black people living in the South in the decades after the Civil War. The story focuses on Seth (James Craven) and Bertha (Tonia Jackson), and the residents of the boarding house that they run. It was the beginning of the Great Migration of Black Americans from the South to the North, escaping the literal and figurative Joe Turners, and Seth and Bertha provide a home for migrants, and others passing through town. For just $2 a week, including meals served twice a day, as Seth makes clear to each arrival. Longtime resident Bynum (Lester Purry) is a practitioner of voodoo, specializing in "binding" people together. Jeremy (Darrick Mosley) is a musician new to town and looking for work, and soon takes up with Mattie (Vinecia Coleman) when Bynum tells her that her husband is not coming back. That is until Molly (Dana Lee Thompson) arrives and turns his head, a confident woman who knows what she does (and doesn't) want. Into this community walks the mysterious Herald Loomis (La'Tevin Alexander), dressed all in black with his young daughter Zonia (Juliah Jefferson, alternating in the role with Mathias Brinda) in tow. She's a sweet and quiet girl, used to moving around a lot, and befriends the neighbor boy Reuben (Camren Graham, alternating with Zayd Felix). Herald has been traveling around the country looking for his wife, whom he hasn't seen in over a decade, since before he was taken by Joe Turner. Bynum tells him that the local peddler Selig (Terry Hempleman) knows everyone and is good at finding people, and we later learn he comes from a family of slave-catchers. Will Herald find his long lost wife, and what will the reunion be like, are the central questions of the play, but it's about so much more than that. It's about people looking for a new home, a community, a safe place away from the dangers of the past.
 |
Selig (Terry Hempleman), Bynum (Lester Purry), and Seth
(James Craven, photo by Caroline Yang Photography_ |
This is the third time Penumbra has produced
Joe Turner (once in the early '90s and once in the early aughts). Lou Bellamy once again directs, an expert at bringing out all of the beauty and humanity in Wilson's work, the heart and the humor, the mix of fantastical elements with grounded reality. The entire 11-person cast is excellent, ranging from actors with decades of experience with Wilson's work, to familiar local actors new to Penumbra and/or Wilson, to the two middle schoolers who are so present and open. They all inhabit these very specific and clearly drawn characters to the fullest. The play is about three hours long, but flows smoothly and at its own pace through the story, the action continuing through scene transitions as actors move around the space while period music plays.
 |
| a moment of celebration (photo Caroline Yang Photography) |
This comfortable and lived in boarding house is beautifully rendered on Penumbra's stage, a fully stocked early 20th Century kitchen on one side, a neat and sparse living room on the other, stairs leading up to the bedrooms. Doors on either side lead to the hinted at outdoor spaces, and the kids hang out on the lawn at the front of the stage. Characters are dressed in authentic period clothing, floor-length skirts for the women, working clothes for the men, specific to each character. (Scenic design by Vicki Smith, lighting design by Don Darnutzer, sound design by Sean Healy, props design by Jenny Moeller, costume design by Mathew J. Lefebvre, wig design by Jamakah Webb.)
Penumbra Theatre has produced all of August Wilson's Century Cycle plays since they premiered Jitney in 1984, each one a time capsule of a different decade in the last century, depicting the history, the culture, the community, the joys, and the tragedies of the life of Black Americans. But it's been almost ten years since they did the last one. Hopefully it won't be another ten years until the next one, but you don't want to miss this opportunity to see this one, brought to us by the people who knew, and know, August Wilson best.
