Though the drama and humanity of August Wilson’s best piece, “Fences,” is glimpsed at New Brunswick’s Crossroad Theatre, Ricardo Khan’s production had not reached full potential by opening night.
The right elements are there, especially in the performances of Jammie Patton, Justin Withers, and the shining star of the production’s late sequences, Dominique Skye Turner, but Khan’s staging as a whole needs time to gel.
The opening night performance was tentative in several ways. More than once, it was obvious that some of the cast did not completely know their lines. Actors stuttered over first syllables before speaking or helped each other by deftly feeding the gist of the next bit of dialogue with cues like “What were you telling about?…”
You can see the “Yes, that’s where I was going” on the receiving actor’s face.
The larger, more urgent task is upping the intensity on stage. As noted, Wilson’s points and the power of them comes through, but readings often seem one-note and lacking in variation. Jammie Patton, as Rose, the wife of a star Negro League baseball player whose glory days preceded Jackie Robinson’s shattering Major League Baseball’s racial barriers in 1947, stands out because everything she says has meaning and the proper punch. Patton sets an example as she gives scenes she dominates room to breathe and have effect. Her measured, intelligently conscious approach builds a mood that is generally missing from Crossroad’s “Fences.” In two particular passages, in which Rose lays down her law to her complex husband, and in another, where she speaks frankly to her grown son, Patton takes Wilson to the majestic heights “Fences” is amply capable of achieving.
The hope is during this last of week of performances, others catch up to Patton and show “Fences” at its best. I’ve seen the show about 15 times, including its original 1987 Broadway production with James Earl Jones and Mary Alice and sterling 2010 revival with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis and know how moving and enlightening the piece can be when presented at its optimum level.
Keith Hamilton Cobb as the focal character, the multi-faceted Troy Maxson, a tower of a man in constant conflict with Death, the devil, and his family, has and displays all of the traits he needs to excel in the part.
It is he who has to harness more of Troy’s passion and, to be specific, show his character’s rigidity, resentment, hardness, and personal code while conveying more of the never-ending struggle Troy endures in an effort to be a decent, responsible man who is yet unable to bend when something doesn’t go exactly his way or according his capricious rules.
Troy Maxson is a difficult part. Cobb lets you understand him. He doesn’t quite make you like him or root for him.
If August Wilson read the last sentence, he’d probably write me strong letter to inform me that no one cares if I or anyone else likes Troy or appreciates his stances and behaviors. He is a man governed by his own volition and logic, and anyone who doesn’t approve of or admire him can take a walk, preferably over broken glass.
That would be an apt lecture, except to fully work, “Fences” needs audiences to see in Troy what Rose and his best friend, Jim Bono (A. Dean Irby), see in him, a person who can reliably lead them and give them confidence he will be sound and protective in any situation.
Cobb emphasizes the flinty side of Troy, the one who rationalizes shabby treatment of the ones who want to love him the most. That side is definitely part of Troy’s being, but for “Fences” to soar and border on being a conflicted man’s tragedy, it needs more texture and more reason to have affection for Troy despite his obvious and unrepentant thoughts and deeds.
“Fences,” one of the 10 plays August Wilson wrote to denote one decade in the experience of African-Americans, takes place in the 1950s, 1957 to be exact, and projects the sensibilities of that era — fitting into a Northern urban world, in this case, Pittsburgh; a woman being primarily a homemaker while a man provided the family’s living; an accepted authoritarian relationship between parents and children, especially between fathers and sons; and $76 and change between a livable weekly wage.
Troy Maxson inhabits and develops in that world. Leaving the South at age 14 in 1918, he arrives in Pittsburgh via hitchhiking. He can’t get a job, so he becomes a thief, first stealing food then robbing people for money. He lands in prison for 10 years. While there, he discovers a talent for baseball. He is compared to Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson, but he is confined to the Negro Leagues, where fame and fortune elude him. He meets Rose, and she domesticates Troy. He gets a job as a sanitation worker. He forces a promotion from hauler to driver. He has three children with three different women. And he contends with devils and the figure of Death.
You see what I mean about complexity. Cobb and Crossroads touch of all of this and give you understanding of Troy. Both need to go further for the production to go beyond interesting but benign to telling and heartbreaking.
August Wilson, great with titles in general, excels in calling this play “Fences.”
The title has so many meanings, from the literal act of Troy spending the play building a fence to enclose his Pittsburgh yard, a fence that has different meanings to him and Rose, to the fences he sailed baseballs over, the fences that confined him while he was in jail, and the barriers he builds between his sons, Rose, and others who care about him and might care more if he’d let them.
At any level, “Fences” is worth seeing. Crossroads’ production, though wanting in areas, holds attention, entertains by strength of Wilson’s dialogue and character machinations, and has enough virtues to warrant a look before it closes on Sunday.
I, for one, am pleased that Crossroads is presenting an established play. I’ve enjoyed many of Khan’s homemade pieces, but I think Crossroads, an as institution, needs to add more classics to its repertory.
Through all the criticisms, Keith Hamilton Cobb is an imposing Troy. His adversaries are right to step easy around him. Cobb conveys how much Troy resorts to hardness when other choices might serve him better. (A 21st century attitude towards a mid-20th century situation, so there’s room for leeway.)
Jammie Patton is terrific in every aspect of Rose Maxson. She captures her humor, her humility, her honor, and her strength. Rose is the backbone of the Maxson home, and even Troy begrudgingly knows it. Patton endows Rose with a completeness that is moving and artfully achieved.
Justin Withers masters a role equal in complexity to Troy as Cory Maxson, Troy’s son through Rose. You can feel the tension Cory eventually describes every time the formative teenager comes in the slightest proximity of his father.
Cory is a young man with dreams, ambition, and courage, all of which he puts into positive play by the end of the show. Withers’ scenes with Rose and Cory’s little sister, Raynell, are superb, especially when he takes a protective stance. His sequences with Cobb are among the best in Khan’s production.
Bryce Michael Wood finds the right nonchalant coolness, musician’s ease, and likability as Troy’s elder son, Lyons. Heinley Gaspard provides some comic relief while eliciting due empathy as Troy’s war-damaged brother, Gabriel. A. Dean Irby has a knack for both lowering the stage’s temperature and increasing some controversial heat as Troy’s more stable best friend, Bono.
One gem of Khan’s production is the natural, winning, and lovable performance of Dominique Skye Turner as eight-year-old Raynell.
Turner has no fear. She comes on the stage with a shy “Hi” accompanied by a tentative wave, then flirts her way into every character and audience member’s heart by being so totally exactly what Raynell is, a little girl with all the honesty and willfulness of her age, who seems so real, you can’t tell Turner is acting.
Beowulf Borrit’s set is the best I’ve seen for any production of “Fences.” All white, it gives Khan the chance to use projections to show 1950s Pittsburgh and other images that provide texture. Totally open, it exposes the interior of the Maxson home, an important choice I’m surprised never occurred to another designer.
Myrna Colley-Lee’s costumes, especially for Rose, Cory, and Raynell, are excellent. Ebony M. Burton’s lighting often helps Khan establish a particular mood. Austin Donahue’s projections are enlighteningly chosen and give context to the Maxson’s Pittsburgh.
Fences, Crossroads Theatre Company, Elizabeth Ross Johnson Theatre, New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, 11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. Through Sunday, June 9, Wednesday, 11 a.m.; Thursday and Friday, 7 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 3 p.m. $35 to $50. www.crossroadstheatrecompany.org or 732-545-8100.
