Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson has garnered much critical acclaim for his cycle of 10 dramas that explore the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century. American Stage launches its 29th season with the first installment in the cycle, Gem of the Ocean. The play is set in 1904 in the Pittsburgh home of Aunt Ester, a matriarch-cum-medium who represents the history and wisdom of her race, and presides over a household of "disciples" — former slave and underground railroad pilot Solly Two Kings, caregiver/heir apparent Black Mary, and caretaker/friend Eli. It's the eve of Ester's 285th birthday, an unlikely achievement if not for the play's overtones of magical realism, and she celebrates by attempting to bring spiritual enlightenment to her latest houseguest, Citizen Barlow, a young man in search of absolution for bringing about the death of a man accused of a crime Barlow actually committed. Bob Devin Jones directs a cast of familiar faces in the American Stage production, including Sharon Scott, ranney and Drew DeCaro. Through Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m. Tues.-Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 3 and 8 p.m. Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., 211 Third St. S., downtown St. Petersburg, $22 preview (Sept. 6)/$35 opening night (Sept. 7)/$26-$32 all other times ($8.50 children; $10 student rush tickets available 10 minutes before curtain), 727-823-7529, americanstage.org.
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2007.