Gem of the Ocean – By August Wilson. Directed by Monica White Ndounou; Scenic Design by Peyton Tavares; Costume Design by Danielle Domingue Sumi; Lighting Design by Isaak Olson; Sound Design by Aubrey Dube. Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley St., Boston, through May 17.
By Mike Hoban
Actors’ Shakespeare Project closes its season with its fourth production from August Wilson’s 10-play American Century Cycle, Gem of the Ocean, and it is—pardon the pun—another artistic gem.
Set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District at the turn of the previous century, Gem of the Ocean explores the plight of African Americans who, despite being emancipated nearly four decades earlier, are still subjected to the ravages of institutionalized white supremacy. But Gem is not trauma porn. Instead, the heart of the play is the healing power of “getting right with the universe” to emancipate one’s soul.
The play opens with Citizen Barlow (Joshua Lee Robinson) knocking loudly on the door of Aunt Ester (Regine Vital), the community’s spiritual advisor. He’s a young Black man who recently escaped his home state of Alabama—where “Black Codes” constrict any real freedoms for former slaves or their descendants—to work in a Pittsburgh tin mill, but a disturbing event has led him to a desperate place. Citizen is turned away by Eli (Dereks Thomas), Ester’s caretaker, but told to return in a few days when Ester can properly receive him.
Meanwhile, there’s trouble brewing in the community. The suicide of Garret Brown, a tin mill worker who drowned himself after being wrongly accused of stealing a bucket of nails, has sparked a workers’ riot that shuts the mill down. The workers are rebelling against the same rigged system they escaped from in the South, where preposterously high room and board are charged against their wages, keeping them in a cycle of indentured servitude and poverty (think Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons”). Workers who fall behind on their rent are evicted from their shoddy quarters, arrested for vagrancy, and forced to work off their debt for free.
Enforcing the law is Caesar Wilks (Kadahj Bennett), an African American criminal-turned-entrepreneur, constable, and landlord who bleeds his tenants dry and possesses the moral compass of an ICE agent. Caesar, whose motto is “The Law is Everything,” thinks Lincoln made a mistake by freeing the enslaved. He also recently killed a man for stealing a loaf of bread. Ironically, his sister is Black Mary (MarHadoo Effeh), Ester’s housekeeper and spiritual protégé, who keeps her distance from her brother because of his disdain and cruelty toward his own people.
When Citizen is finally admitted to Ester’s home days later, he reveals he is tortured by a secret that plagues his conscience. Ester takes a shine to him—in part because he reminds her of her deceased son, June Bug—feeding him and offering him a place to stay, while Eli provides him with a job, helping to build a stone wall. Aided by a combination of fundamental Christianity and mysticism, Ester, Black Mary, Eli, and Solly Two Kings (Ester’s suitor and a former Underground Railroad conductor), take Citizen on a journey where he hopes to “wash his soul” in the mythical City of Bones while the chaos rages outside Ester’s door.
This is the ASP’s fourth production in four years of Wilson’s Century Cycle, which explores the Black experience in each decade of the 20th century (Jitney, set in the 1970s, will be the offering next spring). The productions have been consistently superb, and Gem is no exception, driven by the performances of the outstanding ensemble. Robinson painfully conveys the angst of the tormented Citizen—his wide eyes full of near-terror—and you can feel the weight of his enormous pain as he bares his soul to Aunt Ester. This is Vital’s second production in ASP’s Wilson series, and her growth as a performer, over the last decade-plus, from supporting to meatier roles, is evident in her portrayal of Aunt Ester, as she effectively conveys the character’s inner peace while lovingly leading Citizen on his spiritual ‘adventure.'”
Despite its brutal backdrop, Gem of the Ocean is really about the journey of making peace with oneself by learning to serve others. As Black Mary tells Citizen: “You got to be right with yourself before you can be right with anybody else.”
For more information and tickets, visit www.ActorsShakespeareProject.org.
