Review: GEM OF THE OCEAN at Trinity Rep

Providence's Trinity Rep has come roaring back from a two-year pandemic hiatus with a stunning production of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. Compelling performances from a cast that includes some of Rhode Island's finest actors at the top of their form make this the must-see theatrical event of the season.

Gem of the Ocean is the first work chronologically in Wilson's ten-play "Pittsburgh" cycle, which recounts, decade by decade, the 20th-Century experience of African Americans. It was the penultimate show Wilson wrote: Radio Golf, set in the 1990s, was the last, providing bookends to the cycle. Gem debuted at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago before opening on Broadway in 2004.

Set in 1904, forty years after Emancipation--with slavery still within living memory--the play illuminates the economic and social barriers that remained as Reconstruction gave way to Jim Crow, poisoning the the promise of the great migration north.

The action revolves around turmoil in Pittsburgh's Hill District, sparked by a tragedy at a local tin mill, where a worker has drowned in the river after being accused of stealing a bucket of nails. At the center is a house at 1839 Wylie Avenue, where Aunt Ester (Rose Weaver) is a "285-year-old" woman wise in the ways of spiritual purification.

Weaver offers a stellar performance, by turns comforting a young mill worker (Citizen Barlow, played by Brown/Trinity Rep student Christopher Lindsay), bantering with sometime-suitor Solly Two-Kings (Ricardo Pitts-Wiley), and playing the do-it-my-way curmudgeon with her housekeeper and protégé, Black Mary (Liz Morgan). Weaver's finely nuanced characterization is deeply, earthily realistic (crowing over the quality of the...material...that Solly delivers in tiny paper bags) which provides a solid anchor for her transformation into an awe-inspiring spiritual guide the second act, as she leads Citizen Barlow on a mystical journey of deliverance.

Providing a real-world counterpart to Aunt Ester (perhaps it helps to say it like "ancestor") is Solly Two-Kings, a former underground railroad conductor who has 62 notches on his walking stick, symbolic of the 62 people he led on journeys of deliverance to Canada. Ricardo Pitts-Wiley delivers an incomparable performance, allowing us to see into the heart of a man who so valued freedom that on his initial escape from enslavement in Alabama, he immediately committed to returning to rescue others. In what is one of the finest performances this reviewer has ever seen on a Rhode Island stage, Pitts-Wiley illuminates every aspect of Solly's character, allowing us to see, beneath his calm, loving exterior, a depth of steely resolve and anger. And it's not just in his delivery of Wilson's amazing words; Pitts-Wiley shows us the deeply inhabited reality of Solly with a head turn, a hand tremor, a smile. It is a master class in acting and utterly compelling.

Liz Morgan does an outstanding job as Black Mary, Aunt Ester's long-suffering housekeeper. She exudes tightly controlled energy and sparkles in every interaction, particularly with her brother, Caesar Wilks, played by Joe Wilson, Jr.. While she shows respect for the cultural memory that Aunt Ester embodies, Caesar has gone the opposite way, buying into the dominant culture and becoming a tight-fisted landlord and constable. In an amazing early monologue, Wilson displays astonishing range as he veers from chiding Citizen to tearing into his neighbors to an utterly spellbinding recital of his journey as he pulled himself up by his bootstraps.

Brown/Trinity Rep MFA student Christopher Lindsay does an amazing job as Citizen Barlow. We see genuine anguish and fear as he comes to Aunt Ester for a "soul washing," and his transformation during the subsequent ritual is vividly realized. This is fine work from a promising up-and-coming actor, testament to the outstanding work this program does with its students.

Dereks Thomas turns in a smooth, understated performance as Eli, Aunt Ester's gatekeeper, who sets the tone as he opens the door for every visitor saying, "This is a peaceful house." His chemistry with former Underground Railroad partner Sully is magical, lighting up the stage when they talk about old times. Rounding out the cast is Mauro Hantman as the traveling peddler Rutherford Selig. In this smaller but highly consequential role, Hantman brings a laid-back authenticity that is engaging and affecting.

Director Jude Sandy has done an outstanding job focusing the actors on the reality of Wilson's words. And this is not a simple script. Throughout much of the nearly three-hour run time, extensive monologues are punctuated by rapid-fire back and forth, and in every minute that every actor is on stage, there is vivid reality on display. Sandy has made powerful choices in staging, particularly in Citizen's ritual purification scene, which symbolically re-enacts the Middle Passage. It is a devastating, compelling moment of high theatricality, something that could only be done on stage, and it is flawlessly executed. Yatande Whitney V. Hunter is credited with the ritual's direction, and deserves special mention.

The set design, by Michael McGarty, combines the solid realism of a period interior with the ethereal, half-glimpsed bedroom of Aunt Ester and two upstairs rooms. Simple curtains upstage suggest, without being heavy-handed, the sails of a slave ship. Alejandro Fajardo's lighting is graceful and effective, framing the action and setting time and mood crisply. Levonne Lindsay's costumes are quietly effective, with subtle, telling touches like the right amount of wear on the fabrics to show their history.

Michael Évora provides music direction and and Broken Chord created original music and sound design, and both play an integral part in shaping the inviting, authentic texture of the show.

A particularly significant note: As the play opens, there is a pause for an Indigenous Land Acknowledgement as well as an acknowledgement of the role Rhode Island played in the slave trade. While this play is so much more than "history," encompassing as it does, themes of memory, authenticity, cultural survival, and ritual, among others, it is also deeply about the question of the perfectibility of the American idea. The very title, "Gem of the Ocean" comes from the mid-19th-Century song that served as one of America's unofficial national anthems. We find ourselves and our country at a fraught historical moment, and while it may sound obvious to say, we desperately need a show like this right now.

And this cast and creative team have given us all a tremendous gift: An outstanding interpretation of a deeply thoughtful play by one of American theater's most important voices. Simply stated, there should not be one empty seat at any performance for the rest of the run. This is a powerful show that will amaze, delight, and make you feel--and think. Go.

Trinity Repertory Company presents August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, directed by Jude Sandy. Wednesday-Sunday March 2-26 at 7:30 pm; 2 pm matinees March 6, 9, 13, 20, 23, 27. Sensory friendly performance March 16. Tickets: $27-$77, available by phone at (401) 351-4242, online at www.trinityrep.com/gem and at the box office 201 Washington Street, Providence. Mask and proof of vaccination required.

Photo by Mark Turek

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