Two Trains Running

By the time that this review appears I will have already reviewed five of the ten plays in August Wilson's Century cycle. On the first five I believe that I ran out of fulsome praise for his work and particularly for his tightly woven story and dialogue. Rather than keep following that path for the next five plays I would prefer to concentrate on some of the dialogue that makes Brother Wilson's work so compelling. For those who want to peek at my general observations you can look at my review of "Gem Of The Ocean" (the first play chronologically in the cycle). In all previously reviewed plays I noticed some piece of dialogue that seemed to me to sum up the essence of the play. Sometimes that is done by the lead character as was the case with Troy Maxton in "Fences" when he (correctly) stated that there should have been "no too early" in regard to the possibilities of black achievement and prospects in America. Other times it is by a secondary character in the form of some handed down black folk wisdom to be followed in order to survive in racially-hardened America. In "Two Trains Running" this task falls to Holloway when he cuts through all the basic white assumptions about blacks being lazy. His retort: blacks are the most hard-working people in the world. They worked for free for over three hundred years. And, to add a little dry humor to the situation, he stated that they didn't take a lunch break. That says more in a couple of sentences about a central aspect of black experience in America than many manifestos, treatises or sociological/psychological studies. That Wilson can weave that home truth into a play of less than one hundred pages and drive the plot line of a story that deals with the contradiction between black aspirations as a result of the promise of the militant civil rights movement down South in the early 1960's and the reality of black segregation when the struggle headed North later to get hit, and get hit hard, with the ugly face of white racism in housing, jobs and education is extraordinary. That wisdom, my friends, is still something to consider in the "post-racial" Obamiad. We shall see.

August Wilson is a distinguished playwright who has won numerous awards. He has chronicled the African American experience that begins with the 20s through the 90s. Two of the plays, Fences and The Piano Lesson, both written in the mid 80s, have won the Pulitzer Prize. Set in 1969, Two Trains Running takes place in a small diner in Pittsburgh. The diner regulars include Risa, a waitress who scarred her legs in an effort to keep men away, which eventually works; Sterling, an ex-prisoner who depends on luck to find work rather than the hard way; Hambone, a mentally challenged middle-age man who was cheated by the white man for work he had done. Still after 9 years, his only and constant words are "I want my ham." Wolf is a numbers runner who uses the diner for his business and Holloway has a strong belief in the supernatural. Also included are the funeral owner, West and diner owner, Memphis. Urban renewal is a recurring theme in Wilson's work. Tearing down buildings has been an ongoing project and now the city has an offer for the diner owner, Memphis. He holds out for a respectable offer from the city. Memphis is logical with values but he doesn't have much faith for equality, freedom and justice or the black-is-beautiful concept. The play opens with the restaurant regulars commenting on the townspeople lining up outside West's Funeral Home to see the dead Reverend turned Prophet Samuel. They believe some luck might pass on to them. Funeral home owner, West, is a regular at the diner and he and Prophet are looked upon as two who got rich cheating people. The play doesn't have much in stage direction as it takes place at a diner counter. Little direction is needed. As for the vernacular, Wilson uses the language of the day, however, it would seem that the African Americans in this poor community did not enunciate as well as the words were written. If you haven't read Wilson's work, start with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Band and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. There is wonderful insight to memorable plays. These two are the beginning of the decades of African American experience. .....MzRizz

I am a theatre fanatic. With that said, I am ashamed that when a date took me to see the play Two Trains Running (at the Aliance Theatre in Atlanta) in the mid 90's, I had never heard of the play or the playwright. After the lights came on after a stellar performance, I literally couldn't say anything accept how good the play was. (Maybe that is why I never heard from the guy again - haha) I have become obsessed with this play! I know that reading it will not be exactly the same ... but one owes it to themselves to at least read this very powerful piece of art. I love it! I love it!

It is a story that can make you feel as if you are in the story actually seeing all the characters. It is written in slang and in a play but people can later on forget about it and really get into the story. It is a good book. I am reading it because of the mandatory summer school reading. This is one of the few books that I have read/enjoyed. I recommend it to everyone.

An excellent entry in Wilson's seven play cycle of drama depicting African-American history decade by decade. "Two Trains Running" which takes place in a rundown diner in late 1960's Pittsburgh, deals with the bold confrontation against racism. In the characters of Hambone and Memphis we see the war on discrimination waged on an everyday basis. Read Wilson's masterpieces ("Fences" and "The Piano Lesson") first. You will then feel compelled to read them all.