STAGE WEST
  • Home
  • About David
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Theatre Reviews
  • New Page

Theater reviews

Stage West

Cygnet presents August in October

10/19/2016

0 Comments

 
​August Wilson is the featured playwright in Cygnet Theatre’s annual fall rotating-repertory offering. Seven Guitars and King Hedley II, both part of Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, are set 40 years apart, though they feature several of the same characters. If you see both plays, definitely see them in the order in which they were written, as the latter King Hedley II will make more contextual sense to you. On their own, King Hedley II is the more powerful of the two. Its nearly three hours are tense, wrenching ones, delving uncompromisingly into the experience of black Americans trying to survive in Pittsburgh’s Hill District during the Reaganomics ‘80s. Chief among them is King himself (a fiercely intense Laurence Brown), whose life of one step forward and two steps back is also one of violence and desperation.
            In both plays, Antonio TJ Johnson stands out, hovering over Seven Guitars and King Hedley II as manic, precognitive characters whose presence on the stage foretells retribution -- human or from on high. He may be from one moment to the next comic relief or a living, breathing omen.
            Jennifer L. Nelson directs each production, the ensembles of which also include Ro Boddie (handling the lead role in Seven Guitars), Yolanda Franklin, Grandison Phelps III, Milena Phillips and the singularly named Yvonne.
0 Comments

    Author

    David L. Coddon is a Southern California theater critic.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    August 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    January 2016
    January 2015
    December 2014
    January 2014
    January 2013
    January 2012
    January 2011

    Categories

    All
    Theatre Review

David Coddon

About 
David Coddon Fiction
Theatre Reviews

Support

Contact
FAQ
Terms of Use
© COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About David
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Theatre Reviews
  • New Page