CRITIC’S PICK
Playhouse in the Park’s production of Two Trains Running, the seventh installment of August Wilson’s masterful 10-part Pittsburgh Cycle, is an epic exploration of loss, death and love.
Set in the late 1960s, Pittsburgh’s once thriving Hill District is gutted, a feeble rendering of its former glorious self. Inside a dilapidated diner, a small group of regulars gather daily to “play the numbers” as they talk, argue, flirt, drink coffee and eat whatever is cooking that day.
The city has declared eminent domain over the building and the diner’s owner, Memphis, insists the city must meet his price for the property — a staggering $25,000. Meanwhile, newly released from prison, Sterling looks for work, and gambler Wolf takes bets for that day’s lottery. Retired house painter Holloway advises everyone in the group to visit neighborhood mystic Aunt Ester about their troubles; prosperous undertaker West eats pie and waitress Risa mourns the recent death of a prophet and quietly endures Memphis’ petty tirades. Periodically, the group is joined by a Hambone, a local vagrant, who is still fuming over a raw deal he got nearly 10 years ago: He painted a fence for businessman who promised him a ham for the job — but shortchanged him with a chicken.
In the set’s corner, a broken jukebox sits silently as the days come and go. The future is upon them all, but remains heavy with the past. West has offered Memphis a good price for the building — $15,000 — that he will then turnaround and sell to the city. But Memphis doesn’t want to settle. He was brutally cheated out of his farm in Jackson, Mississippi decades before. And so he went to Pittsburgh, where he spent a lifetime building his business. He dreams aloud about taking one of the two trains running to Jackson to settle the score with the thugs who robbed him years ago.
Within the Pittsburgh Cycle, Two Trains Running precedes Wilson’s Jitney, which the Playhouse produced in 2016. Both under the direction of Timothy Douglas, Two Trains and Jitney feel very much like members of the same family. Both plays grapple with themes of injustice and oppression and in Two Trains’ darkly pragmatic character of West, death is physically present on the stage.
Two Trains is not mired in stage business and blocking; Douglas and a team of gifted designers chose to make a gorgeous home for the diner and then let the language and the performances do the rest. Matthew Nielson’s Motown soundtrack is toe tapping and evocative. Kara Harmon’s rich costuming and Tony Cisek’s husk of a formerly bustling diner are both colorful, yet muted, as though everything has lost its luster. Michael Gilliam effortlessly moves the play through time by bringing the lights in the diner down low during the evening.
Within this well-crafted world, the performances glow. Raymond Anthony Thomas’ Memphis is the play’s strong backbone. He’s proud, resilient and strangely blind to way he mistreats Risa, who patiently manages Memphis’ diner with little help from him.
Risa, played by Malkia Stampley, hardly ever leaves the stage, but has fewer lines than the rest of the ensemble. Still, Stampley plays Risa with a forceful and gentle presence, which allows her silence and the scars on her legs to speak for themselves.
Michael Anthony Williams as Holloway and Jefferson A. Russell as Wolf bring humor and liveliness to the production, delivering laughter and wisdom in tandem. Chiké Johnson’s youthful Sterling embodies the next generation with his optimism and wide smile. And Frank Britton’s Hambone is a poignant reminder of what it means to struggle daily toward something that you want — and earned.
Wilson’s characters cannot look away from tragedy; everything around them is dying, but they still must plan for tomorrow. This cast captures the everyday compassion these characters feel for one another despite their bickering, disagreements, differences and slights. The play requires a familiar yet special connection among the diner’s regulars; the entire cast understands and delivers that, giving the audience the full, rich experience of the remarkable people on the stage.
Wilson has been described as Shakespearean and watching his plays can feel like opera. Douglas has a steady, patient hand, and — like in Jitney — he allows Wilson’s gift for dramatizing the ordinary days of ordinary people to ring with sorrow, longing, and even breathtaking bursts of joy and friendship.
Playhouse in the Park’s Two Trains Running runs through March 30. More info/tickets: cincyplay.com.
This article appears in Mar 6-13, 2019.