Seven Guitars

Seven Guitars is a revival of the August Wilson play now at the Signature theatre. This was the first AW play that I've ever seen - so I'm a little green as to his style but I've read that this play fits into his "Pittsburgh Cycle" which is an anthology of African American life in Pittsburgh over the span of a decade.

The story focuses around a host of characters - quite a strong ensemble cast. As it opens, we are drawn into a scene centering around the death of one of the characters, Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton. The cast of characters includes, Vera - Floyd's on-again, off-again girlfriend, her roommate Louise, Hedley - a religion-obsessed, white-man oppressed fanatic, a late appearance by Louise's niece, Ruby and lastly his two bandmates, Red Carter and Canewell (my favorite). Everyone's gathered in Vera's backyard after just coming home from the funeral.

We switch back the the present and the story unravels. We learn that Floyd has just come back from Chicago to beg Vera to come back into his life. He's pretty convincing and it doesn't help that his record is starting to really break-through and get radio play. In the three hours during which the play unfolds, we see that Floyd has done some terrible things to get ahead but ultimately pays for what he's done. The story is strung together by pieces of blues music, which I know is truly Wilson's style - it draws you in and makes you feel like you're part of that time period.

The actors were great and put so much into their performances. The audience I was with was quite receptive (minus the crying baby!) to all the little details of these performances and lavished the actors with applause at every notable occassion. The story was a bit long and slowly-paced, focusing more on the period of life and character study than placing great emphasis on plot. I suppose I'll have to do a bit more research to see if that's reminiscent of Wilson - which I strongly suspect that it is.

Interestingly enough, when I was on the subway platform late late Saturday night, Kevin and I ran across two of the actors from the show - and one of my favorites - Kevin Carroll who plays Canewell. He had his harmonica in hand (the instrument he plays in the show) and played the entire time we waited for the train - a good 15 minutes. Such energy! I was really impressed by him and loved seeing him continue his character in real life.

Bottom line - good performances, slow play, but nice commentary on the time period and African American culture.....but not sure it was worth the Brantley recommend (the pinnacle of critical success in my opinion).

Here's looking forward to more August Wilson productions and improving my knowledge of his style...