"No one except perhaps Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams has
aimed so high and achieved so much in the American theater."-John
Lahr, "The New Yorker"
"A swelling battle hymn of transporting beauty. Theatergoers who
have followed August Wilson's career will find in Gem a touchstone
for everything else he has written."-Ben Brantley, "The New York
Times"
"Wilson's juiciest material. The play holds the stage and its
characters hammer home, strongly, the notion of newfound
freedom."-Michael Phillips, "Chicago Tribune"
"Gem of the Ocean" is the play that begins it all. Set in 1904
Pittsburgh, it is chronologically the first work in August Wilson's
decade-by-decade cycle dramatizing the African American experience
during the 20th century-an unprecedented series that includes the
Pulitzer Prizewinning plays "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson." Aunt
Esther, the drama's 287-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her
Hill District home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and
scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from
Alabama searching for a new life. "Gem of the Ocean" recently
played across the country and on Broadway, with Phylicia Rashad as
Aunt Esther.
Earlier in 2005, on the completion of the final work of his ten
play cycle-surely the most ambitious American dramatic project
undertaken in our history-August Wilson disclosed his bout with
cancer, an illness of unusual ferocity that would eventually claim
his life on October 2. Fittingly the Broadway theatre where his
last play will be produced in 2006 has been renamed the August
Wilson Theater in his honor. His legacy will animate the theatre
and stir the human heart for decades to come.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!