PicksInSix Review: Joe Turner's Come and Gone - Goodman Theatre
Riveting Performances Drive Goodman’s “Joe Turner”
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton
“A man forget his song, he forget who he is”… It was a line shared by Bynum Walker, a ‘conjure man’ whose awareness of life and people is reflected in Walker’s role as the compass, the conscience of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” the staggering August Wilson play now at the Goodman Theatre through May 19. There are several themes that flow throughout the play, all expertly articulated by Mr. Wilson—the song inside us all, identity, search, discovery, prejudice, the effect of money, the comparison of status, the supernatural, on and on. It quietly inspires us to follow on one hand, then forcefully repels us with its stark reality on slavery and its influence on culture and society.
The story is so thick and full of imagery that it’s a real challenge to distill its essence in this forum. It ostensibly takes place in and around the steel mills of 1911 Pittsburgh, focusing on the boarding house of Seth Holly (an easy, yet riveting portrayal by Dexter Zollicoffer), who charges guests a weekly rate “up front” and works at turning scrap metal into dustpans; and his wife Bertha (an elegant and comforting TayLar), whose natural ease belies her character’s real moral center in the house. And there’s a cast of wide-ranging tenants and visitors, whose performers all deserve kudos.
There’s the aforementioned Bynum Walker (Tim Edward Rhoze is eloquent, rock-steady and takes Walker’s purpose into firm hands); Rutherford Selig (a stoic, wonderfully deadpan Gary Houston), a peddler and ‘peoplefinder’ who visits the house on Saturdays; Herald Loomis (a dynamic presence from A.C. Smith), whose life was forever altered by ‘Joe Turner’, being kept in slavery for seven years, and whose search for his wife is both heroic and tragic; Mattie Campbell (the wonderful Nambi E. Kelley), a woman waiting for her own man to come home, but who wants to find direction through the eyes of others; and Jeremy Furlow (Anthony Fleming III in a real star turn), playing guitar, romantically preying on women and fighting his bosses all the way to unemployment.
Then there’s Molly Cunningham (Krystel V. McNeil, in a strong rendering of a character with conflicting impulses), a single woman on her own road, whose huge strain of independence tempts all the men in the house; Martha Loomis (Shariba Rivers skillfully inhabits her with both a sense of obligation and a feeling of dread), Herald’s wife, who is finally found after all the years of separation; Zonia Loomis (a simply heartbreaking presence by Kylah Renee Jones), who has accompanied her father on this endless quest at the tender age of 11; and Harper Anthony (the charming Reuben Mercer), whose scenes with Zonia result in a first kiss and a realization of growing up.
The grand Goodman spirit Chuck Smith, an avid and long-supportive interpreter of Mr. Wilson’s cycle, directs this play like a symphony conductor, with all the crescendos and quiet moments we can witness, as well as displaying Mr. Smith’s own deep affection for the playwright’s words and thoughts. The not-so-abstract and stylish set design by Linda Buchanan shows an authority in understanding what’s needed to help tell this complex story. And here’s something I’d like to mention. It takes a real professional to keep this moving so smoothly and to affect how an audience perceives it all; the production stage manager Mars Wolfe surely had Mr. Smith’s vision in hand like it was personal. Exquisite work.
Finally. We began our reaction here with a referral to song, that we create our lives (or should) with a message of some kind. Mr. Wilson recognizes that our message is indeed a song inside us, waiting to come out and be recognized in a world that doesn’t always know to do that. “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” is a truly extraordinary piece of theatre, of storytelling, of the song that resonates for all of us within the human spirit.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com
PHOTO|Liz Lauren
GOODMAN THEATRE
presents
August Wilson’s
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
NOW EXTENDED
through May 19
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