The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has become nearly as renowned for its productions of August Wilson’s plays as it is for the works of Shakespeare.
You could say that Wilson, one of our best playwrights, is our Shakespeare. Although he died at age 60, his ten-play American Century Cycle should stand the test of time and inform future generations about the history of this country as seen through the eyes of the Black men and women who clawed their way toward success, sometimes winning, sometimes failing tragically.
Such a story is Jitney, set in the Pittsburgh Hill District in 1977, and now playing at the Bowmer Theatre, splendidly directed by Tim Bond, the Festival’s artistic director. Most of the actors portray jitney drivers who provide unauthorized rides in their own cars where Blacks can’t take taxis. The drivers’ sensible boss Jim, played by James Williams, tries to keep them clean and honest.
The characters generally get along with each other, but Turnbo, a tough little busybody delightfully portrayed by Kevin Kenerly, picks on Youngblood, a Vietnam vet played by Preston Butler III. Boss Jim and others advise Youngblood to take advantage of the GI Bill and go to college instead of wasting his life as a jitney driver.
When Jim’s estranged son Booster shows up after twenty years in jail, the plot takes a sharp turn. Chris Butler, riveting as Booster, has so much pain that tears stream down his face, and I cry too. Others in the impeccable cast are Tyrone Wilson, Aldo Billingslea, Folami Williams, Reginald Andre Jackson and Christian Denzel Bufford.