Maybe it's going to be the Year of the Actor. Last week I was dazzled by Steve Du Mouchel's superb performance in Stageworks' Lobby Hero, and now I've been knocked silly by Sharon E. Scott as Aunt Ester in American Stage's Gem of the Ocean. Even working with a strong cast, Scott dominates the late August Wilson's Gem, easily convincing us that, yes, she's 285 years old, and no, age hasn't diminished her authority — or her ability to intimidate — one bit.
Gem's a problematic play in some ways: Although its language approaches poetry and its characters are lovingly drawn, it also promises a catharsis that it doesn't really deliver, and features several half-hearted subplots. But at its best, and with the help of Scott's tremendous acting, this is a heartening experience, a paean to African-American endurance and human solidarity. American Stage is to be commended for bringing Bay area audiences one of the most ambitious works by one of our greatest playwrights.
The story Gem tells is about Citizen Barlow, who bursts into Aunt Ester's Pittsburgh home one evening and demands that she live up to her reputation as a washer of souls. It seems that Barlow has committed a terrible crime and can't live anymore with the guilt and pain. Aunt Ester informs him that what he really needs is a mystical voyage to the mysterious City of Bones — and that she, with friends and family, can help him make that journey.
But before they do, we meet the other inhabitants of Aunt Ester's household and learn a few things about life in the Hill District, 1904. We meet Solly Two Kings, a suitor to Aunt Ester, who was once a conductor on the Underground Railroad; his friend Eli, who guards Ester's door and keeps the peace; Black Mary, Aunt Ester's housekeeper, to whom Barlow is attracted; and Caesar, Black Mary's brother, a gun-toting constable devoted to justice without mercy.
And we find out that the whole district is talking about a man who was accused of stealing nails from a local mill and who drowned in the river rather than come to shore and be arrested. When these characters aren't attending to the laundering of Barlow's soul, they reminisce with each other and the friendly white peddler Rutherford Selig or plot how to rescue Solly's sister from Alabama, where racists are trying to stop blacks from moving north.
Finally, the moment for Barlow's fantastic voyage arrives, and we're treated to an experience that's ritualistic, even religious. Then we're back in ordinary Pittsburgh, where trigger-happy Caesar is pursuing the latest supposed offender. As the play ends, we're supposed to feel that Barlow, at least, is headed for a new life.
I didn't feel it. The voyage to the City of Bones is the central action of the entire play, and I don't want to give away too much detail. But I will say this much: It asks us to see a connection between Citizen Barlow's crime and the larger injustice of the slave trade and the Middle Passage.
And, try as I might, I just don't see the connection. As to the confession that Barlow is asked to make at a pivotal moment, it's nothing more than he's already expressed to Aunt Ester.
Still, the segment is powerful: It features singing and masks and an imaginative leap that puts Barlow on a slave ship, shackled and terrified and then finally initiated. As skillfully directed by Bob Devin Jones, this is theater as religious as anything the ancient Greeks might have concocted. If it doesn't offer us the full Greek catharsis, still it reaches us on a mythic level. Which may be why it's so ultimately disappointing: If we're to be touched in such a deep place in ourselves, we insist that it matter.
The other problem — besides that the play is too long — are all those undeveloped subplots; some only exist for a few lines of dialogue.
If, ultimately, Gem doesn't have the tightness of other Wilson plays, like Fences or Two Trains Running, still it offers seven actors the opportunity to speak this playwright's wonderful language and participate in his unequaled talent for creating character. And the American Stage troupe is up to the challenge.
First, of course, there's Scott, who comes across as powerful enough to carry the whole suffering world on her shoulders, and still have a few good words about compassion and tolerance. Also outstanding: "ranney," as the good Eli, radiates love and wisdom with every movement of his expressive face, and Kim Sullivan as Solly keeps us delighted and saddened with his joy that seems built on more pain than anyone dare acknowledge.
The production's other notable actor is Alan Bomar Jones as constable Caesar: Some vital psychological safety valve has stopped working in his life, and he now has no more discernment than the gun that he carries. Solid if not particularly remarkable performances are also turned in by Leonard Williams as Barlow, Aleshea Harris as Black Mary and Drew DeCaro as Selig.
Jeffrey W. Dean's set — a cross-section of Aunt Ester's house with views of both the interior and exterior — is adequate if not exceptional, but Lea Umberger's costumes, from Eli's worn-out overalls to Caesar's impeccable three-piece suit, couldn't be better. Celeste N. Silsby's lighting design is particularly eloquent in the misty City of Bones sequence.
If the play doesn't finally add up — if it never takes that last step into the terrible truth — still it introduces us to characters whose acquaintance we're happy to make and delights us with language as poetic as the American theater offers. As always, the flawed work of a genius has more to tell us than 10 perfect plays by mediocre talents.
Defects or not, Gem of the Ocean is worth our time.
Correction: In my column a couple of weeks ago, I said that Gem "appears to be the first professional production of an August Wilson play in the Bay area." Well, it may appear to be, but it isn't. The Center Theater Company brought us The Piano Lesson four years ago at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Apologies to the cast and crew for overlooking that notable production.
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2007.