Two Trains Running, A Play by August Wilson

Two Trains Running, A Play by August Wilson

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On Sunday, hubby and I had an opportunity to attend August Wilson’s 7th play, Two Trains Running at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington.  Most of you probably know that another one of August Wilson’s plays, Fences was recently a box office hit directed by as well as starred in by Denzel Washington.

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Two Trains Running is a two-act drama that takes place during a week in 1969 at Memphis Lee’s restaurant in Pittsburgh which was also the childhood home of August Wilson and the setting of many of his other plays.

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According to the website:

The seventh play is August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, Two Trains Running takes place in a restaurant run by a man named Memphis Lee. It is the 1960s, and the neighborhood is about to go through major economic development and gentrification. While we see a lot of the same themes as in August’s earlier works (surrounding race, oppression, identity), we see how those themes are filtered through a more modern world that is in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X has just been killed, and the younger characters in the play, namely Sterling and Risa, are searching for who they are and where they fit in.

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Memphis has given up on trying to save his business from being taken by the government but insists on getting the money he deserves. The colorful cast of African-American characters includes an old man who has gone crazy and can only say two phrases, a man who runs numbers (i.e. the lottery) for the people of the town, a young woman who cut up her legs to make them ugly so men would leave her alone, and a young man who recently got out of the penitentiary and just wants some money and a woman. A few of the characters from Wilson’s other plays are a part of this world, and hearing their names mentioned reconnects us to the roots of what it means and has meant to be an African-American in America.

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The first act of the play seemed to progress slowly, however, the second act brought it all home and the actors received a standing ovation for their performances.

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Hubby and I truly enjoyed the play and want to thank the Kappa Mainstream Leadership, Inc., and Delta Outreach and Education Center for bringing it to Wilmington.

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I would also like to personally thank Sheila Grant for providing us with the tickets because it was nice to get out with hubby.  We even stopped at Appleby’s afterward to pick up dinner before heading home for the evening.

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If you get a chance to see an August Wilson play, please make an effort in which to do so because you won’t be disappointed.

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