JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE | CONGO SQUARE THEATRE COMPANY
WHEN Through 2/25: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM
Radio Golf
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The Goodman recently became the only theater in the country to have produced all ten of the plays in Wilson’s cycle. Now, as part of its current celebration of his work, it’s brought in Congo Square Theatre Company to perform Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in the Owen Theatre. It’s a vibrant production that celebrates Wilson’s legacy in more ways than one: before his death Wilson, a mentor for black theater artists, made Congo Square his artistic and financial beneficiary, and it’s the only theater to have received a bequest from his estate. Its ensemble members, including director Derrick Sanders, have done well with past Wilson productions, such as 2005’s Jeff-winning Seven Guitars, and they’re flat-out brilliant in this staging.
The boardinghouse–a stopping place for blacks on their migrations northward run by the affectionately squabbling Seth and Bertha Holly–shelters many seekers. Seth believes he knows where Martha, a former boarder, can be found, but he’s not about to share that information with Loomis, who he says looks like he “killed somebody gambling over a quarter.” But Seth does rent him a room, and over the course of the play Loomis finds his bearings again as a proud soul and a man with a community. Construction worker and aspiring guitarist Jeremy Furlow (a rakish Daniel Bryant) is newly arrived from North Carolina and eager for action at the juke joints. Bynum Walker (a rumpled Allen Gilmore) is an eccentric shaman who dispenses herbs and advice to those seeking lost loved ones. Mattie Campbell, a young woman who’s had two babies die, seeks Bynum’s advice when her husband leaves her–and briefly becomes Jeremy’s lover, until the arrival of the worldly Molly Cunningham. Bynum himself seeks the “shining man,” a vision he believes contains the secret of life.
Perhaps Wilson, who typically rewrote his plays extensively, would have made changes to Radio Golf if he hadn’t died a few months after its 2005 production. But as it stands, it’s the most conventional play in the cycle. Wilson’s sharp observational wit is still present, but the two friends’ attacks and counterattacks over do-gooderism versus selling out feel warmed over, and Kenny Leon’s staging is rather schematic. Still, even a minor Wilson work runs rings around the forgettable fare on most stages. His was a career that ended too soon, but while it lasted it was a hell of a ride.