Nashville Repertory Theatre has hit a home run in every sense.
Fences, August Wilson’s masterpiece and the winner of the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and numerous other awards, has opened its porch to Nashville. Directed by Jon Royal, this timely and important play is not to be missed.
Running this weekend only, Fences is an invitation into 1950’s Pittsburgh, where a former Negro Leagues baseball star grapples with racial injustice, socioeconomic conditions, and the very personal aspects of his family life. With only 7 performers and no set changes, the pressure is on to deliver pathos and substance while being true to its context, time, and place. Fences does that and so much more. The set is perfectly suited for the humble, yet dense dialogue and the tension that pervades each act. An old ratty baseball hangs from a tree branch, leaves lie where they’ve settled, a baseball bat waits to be picked up, a fence gradually grows around the plot, and a house sits behind a porch where all aspects of life and death are discussed through laughter, tears, and occasional song. Ultimately, it’s the believable, relatable performance of the cast that makes this production live up to the high calling of its importance and legacy.
Favorite Performer: A fence is only as strong as its weakest picket, and this cast is perfectly solid all around. Bringing the audience into a time, a place, and a family, each member contributes exactly what’s needed in each role. Clark Harris is tremendous as Troy, and Bakari J. King is outstanding as Gabriel. You’d be forgiven for being so impressed with the male leads that Alicia Haymer’s depiction of Rose could be overshadowed in the opening scenes. When the rawest of emotions come to the surface, though, she shines magnificently and raises the stakes when heartbreak is at its zenith.
August Wilson once said, “All you need in the world is love and laughter. That’s all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.” When he created Fences, Wilson clearly placed within the hands of the play’s seven characters love, laughter, and much, much more. There’s heartbreak, hope, healing, reminiscing, planning, dreaming, coping, and more heartbreak. I intentionally went into this show without diving deeply into the script or having viewed the film. My expectation was to find a show that was high in drama and possibly bereft of hope. What I saw, though, was a dramatic exemplar, but also witty, reflective, and even funny. If you look closely, the trajectory of generations shows signs of hope, as fathers are confronted, hearts soften, and sons make their own ways. And if we think deeply, we see that life can throw fastballs on the outside of the plate or curve balls on the inside, but there’s much work to be done no matter how many strikes we believe we have. Families need strong men and women, society needs more justice. Sons need dads and little girls need mothers. And men need the help of friends and the strength of a woman. Sometimes the simpleminded are exactly the prophets and angels we need. What goes on in our homes might seem like it’s just our business, but families thrive in love and societies thrive in justice and truth. And there’s a lot to be sorted out on each of our front porches.
Nashville Rep will be performing Fences in Nashville until March 5 in TPAC’s James K. Polk Theater. Get tickets and more information here.
Next up at TPAC: Ain’t Too Proud (March 21-26) Tickets and more info here. Take a look at TPAC’s calendar of events here.
Next up for The Rep: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (March 24-April 2). Tickets and more info here. See the rest of Nashville Rep’s 22-23 season here.
The Frenetic Peripatetic 