Charming Detroit ensemble stages strong production of August Wilson play
Have you found your people? Your path? Your purpose? Have you found the song in the universe that only you were meant to sing? Have you found what it takes to make you shine?
August Wilson poses these questions in his 1984 play, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” He asks them of a motley group of characters inhabiting and surrounding a 1911 Pittsburgh boarding house, the characters ask them of one another, and, in the end, Wilson asks his audience.
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” running through March 3 at Detroit Repertory Theatre, flings its characters together and follows them through a storm of emotions that kicks off when mysterious, imposing drifter Herald Loomis lands with his young daughter on the doorstep of Seth and Bertha Holly’s boarding house. The play follows the duration of his stay, and how it affects Seth’s small community.
The 1988 Broadway premiere created a major critical splash and a big showing at the Tony Awards. Detroit Rep follows along nicely with a slightly uneven but ultimately charming ensemble who make the most of the material.
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Antoine McKay gives an outstanding performance as Seth, providing a dependable anchor for the cast and bringing the house down with his comic timing. His double-takes, his frustrated ranting, the way he uses his body … it’s positively Gleason-esque, and it’s worth the price of admission just to see how McKay expertly interprets this material.
Lynch R. Travis goes above and beyond in his knockout portrayal of Bynum, old-school conjurer and perpetual foil to Seth. Memorizing a seemingly endless amount of lengthy speeches and delivering them as though the words were fresh from his mind, his magnetic energy grounds many scenes that might otherwise seem outlandish — and it’s an even greater feat when you learn he also directed the show. Particularly strong is his chemistry with Will Bryson, who plays Loomis and was glorious earlier this season in the company’s “Topdog/Underdog.”
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A number of the women performers struggled with volume during the Saturday, Feb. 10 matinee, with audience members straining to hear them. (Janai Lashon, whose vivacious and earthy Molly had viewers eating from her hand, was not among those.) Ditto two child performers whose voices were almost painfully quiet — and, yet, they were so wildly adorable and their scenes so utterly delightful that they still received the show’s most enthusiastic reception.
Kudos for set designers Harry Wetzel and Erin Wakeland; the minute the action begins, you never imagine you’re anywhere else but in the common area of this very realistic home, and you want to walk in and be there with these characters, even in the most dangerous of moments. It’s helped by good work from light designer Dan Morency.
Wilson’s ending can be perplexing, even confounding or frustrating — it’s certainly open to more free interpretation than some of his other conclusions ("Fences," for instance). But this director and cast drive it home, and a very happy audience leapt to its feet at curtain call. Joe Turner may have come and gone, but the tale he leaves behind is still available to witness for a few more weeks. Find out why performances of this production are quickly selling out.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
Detroit Repertory Theatre
13103 Woodrow Wilson St., Detroit
313-868-1347
Tickets start at $25
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone' at Detroit Repertory Theatre: Review
