Comedy, Tragedy, and Gentrification in August Wilson’s “Jitney” at Arena Stage
Review by Norah Vawter
Arena Stage’s production of August Wilson’s Jitney, newly extended through October 27, 2019, is a tour de force. It’s moving. It’s funny. It shifts quickly between light and darkness, between small, ordinary moments and intense, profound glimpses into the human condition. It certainly starts out feeling like a comedy, and I think it would be easy to see this play as a comedy with elements of drama and tragedy dropped in. But I was moved to tears several times, and ultimately I think this is a story that defies genre. Jitney was Wilson’s first play (written in 1979 and heavily revised in the 1990s), and he was still learning the ropes and developing the craft he would hone to near perfection in Fences, The Piano Lesson, and the rest of his Pittsburgh Cycle series. But, wow, what a marvelous first step into the world of theatre Jitney is! It’s a rare talent that can move so easily between the comic and tragic, within a scene, and even within a few lines of dialogue. In Jitney, Wilson’s touch is ever so light and ever so effortless.
The production at Arena Stage is directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, a long-time friend and collaborator of August Wilson. An actor, playwright, filmmaker, and director, he won a Tony acting in Wilson’s Seven Guitars. Santiago-Hudson also directed Jitney’s (long overdue) Broadway debut in 2017. Arena’s production, a continuation of that Broadway show, which won a Tony for best revival, is the beginning of a national tour of the show. Many of the cast have stayed on, as have scenic designer David Gallo, costume designer Toni-Leslie James, lighting designer Jane Cox, sound designer Darron L. West, and original music, Bill Sims, Jr.
Set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh in the 1970s, Jitney follows the day-to-day lives of a group of jitney drivers. Jitneys are gypsy cabs—unlicensed, unregistered, unofficial—a car service that crops up in places, like this low-income, black neighborhood in Pittsburgh, where official taxis won’t go. Wilson famously arrived for the premiere of this play in a jitney. The station is owned by the solid, always respectable Jim Becker. We’re introduced to a colorful, boisterous group of drivers, including the gossipy Turnbo, mellow and wise Doub, alcoholic Fielding, and Vietnam veteran Darnell (called Youngblood by the other drivers). The only woman in the cast is Youngblood’s girlfriend Rena, who inserts herself into this otherwise male story.
The play takes a couple of serious turns, most notably when Becker’s son is released from prison, after serving 20 years for murder, and tries to reconcile with his father. Becker, angry that his son threw his life away, wasting opportunities he’d worked so hard to give him, refuses to forgive. The conflict between these two men, father and son who come from different generations and have different expectations of the world, is at the heart of Jitney. Outside of the personal conflicts, we learn about a larger conflict that is rooted in the expectations these men have of the world: what they are willing to give up, and what they demand from the world. The city wants to tear down Becker’s jitney station and much of the surrounding neighborhood, condemning these buildings, and promising to remake and revitalize the neighborhood. But the residents don’t trust the city. The jitney drivers must decide whether to look for work elsewhere, start a new station together, or take a stand where they are, fighting the injustice.
Arena Stage’s set design is spectacular. A colorful, dilapidated room with worn-in furniture is the world we are thrown into. The set has this very lived in, authentic vibe, and it works because it’s so meticulously crafted and detailed. From the cracked tiles on the floor to the refrigerator magnets, the messy desk, and the coffee table made from a piece of plywood thrown over cinderblocks—this set feels like a real place. I’ve been inside places like this station, and the set feels authentic because it goes just far enough. It doesn’t try too hard. Another high point of the production is the original music, with its jazzy interludes that punctuate and accentuate the dialogue, and contribute to the overall musicality of the script.
The entire cast is strong, but there are standouts. Anthony Chisholm plays Fielding (like he did in the 2017 Broadway show and also in earlier shows in 1996 and 2000), an older man who was once a respected tailor but has fallen from grace. An alcoholic, he’s only employed as a driver because Becker doesn’t have the heart to fire him. A lesser actor might have played this character only for laughs—and Chisholm is hilarious as Fielding, but he also imbues the character with a great deal of humanity and sympathy, even gravitas. Ray Anthony Thomas’s Turnbo is laugh-out-loud funny as he meddles and gossips and seems incapable of keeping his opinions to himself, until he snaps, and he’s not funny at all. Thomas, who had a smaller role in the Broadway production, does a fantastic job of shifting between the layers of the character and showing us the desperation, anger, and deep insecurity that underlies all of this surface-level gossiping. Francois Battiste, as Becker’s son Booster, in the most consistently dramatic, heavy role, also stands out. Booster is a complicated tightrope of a role, and Battiste allows us to be on his side and not on his side, to empathize with him and to be angry with him at the same time.
Jitney is part of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle/American Century Cycle: ten plays, all set in Pittsburgh, mostly in the Hill District, each taking place in a different decade of the twentieth century. The idea was to show the black experience in America throughout the century. The different entries into the Cycle are interrelated but standalone stories. Almost like a thematically and location-linked story collection. A history buff, Wilson set his second play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, in the 1920s and his third, Fences, in the 1950s. Like Jitney, they take place in Wilson’s hometown of Pittsburgh. Then he realized that he could create this larger, interconnected saga by writing a series of plays set in different decades. Though he died in 2005 at the age of 60, he managed to complete all ten plays. Jitney was the first written but the last to be produced on Broadway.
Jitney feels remarkably relevant to our current political reality. The word gentrification is never used in the play, but I thought of it as I watched these black men on stage trying to decide what to do in response to the (presumably white) leaders of the city condemning their building. And Arena Stage is thinking the same thing. They’re hosting a pre-show discussion about Jitney and gentrification here in D.C., on October 16. Jitney could start so many conversations about social justice, from gun violence to the mass incarceration of black men and the many injustices within the so-called justice system.
The one element that does feel dated, potentially, is gender and the representation of women. I don’t think that Wilson portrays women in a sexist or stereotypical way, but it is notable that there is only one woman in the cast, and that the working world of Jitney is dominated by men. It feels like the public space belongs to men, while the home belongs to women. We hear a lot about various women in these men’s lives, wives, ex-wives, mothers, sisters, but we see only one on stage. Rena, Youngblood’s girlfriend and the mother of his child, is a great female character. She’s smart, determined, independent—every ounce a modern woman, and a fully realized character in her own right. But Rena becomes a character in the play because she shows up in the man’s world of the jitney station. She inserts herself into the story and, unlike other women in the characters’ lives, demands to be heard, demands to be seen, demands to be equal. To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with a work of fiction that is populated with mostly men or mostly women. Certainly, it says something about the world of 1979, and about the mindset of a male writer at the time. And while we’ve come a long way since 1979, this issue of representation is still real in contemporary theatre, and something to continue to think about.
Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes with a 15-minute intermission
Tickets may be purchased online at arenastage.org, by phone at 202-488-3300 or at the Sales Office at 1101 Sixth Street, SW, D.C
If you want more August Wilson, there are dozens of opportunities to experience his work over the next few months, here in D.C. Jitney is part of Arena’s “August Wilson Festival,” which includes a series of discussions and panels throughout the year and a production of the 1940s era installment of the Pittsburgh Cycle, Seven Guitars, in spring 2020. Ford’s Theatre is showing the 1950s era Fences this fall. You can also check out the 2016 film version of Fences, starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis and this lovely 2004 interview with August Wilson himself.
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Norah Vawter is DCTrending’s Local Authors editor. She earned her M.F.A. in creative writing from George Mason University. She has published articles, op-eds, and essays on parenting, politics, and lifestyle topics in The Washington Post, OtherWords, Posh Seven, Scary Mommy, JustBE Parenting, among others.