By: Renae Richardson
What a season it is to witness the works of renowned playwrights resuscitated by artists of the present who recognize the power of their pen, their experience, and their offering. Denzel Washington is doing his part to bring the works of August Wilson to a new audience, and the project that now commands his focus is the famed Wilson contribution, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
Washington’s Devotion to Wilson’s World
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone will not be Washington’s first engagement with August Wilson’s collection of narratives that captured the African American experience unforgettably. His portrayal in the classic Fences, alongside Viola Davis, was something to rave about. Then in 2021, his imprint on the molding of The Piano Lesson starring his progeny John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, and Samuel L. Jackson bespoke of Washington’s dedication to the preservation of a work that carried remarkable depth and soul.
The American Century Cycle
Wilson’s works were special in many ways, but of particular distinction was his development of narratives that capture experiences set in a particular corner of the world over decades, earning his collective body of work the title “The American Century Cycle.” Per the cultural center that bears his name, Frederick August Kittel Jr., known to the world as August Wilson, once said the following:
“Put them all together, and you have a history.”
It is noted that all of Wilson’s works have received Broadway attention, which is fitting given that he is credited with co-founding the theater Black Horizons in Pittsburgh in 1968. However, not all have received the film treatment. To date, only three have been adapted for the screen: the two aforementioned works and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which also starred a skilled Viola Davis alongside the late Chadwick Boseman.
The Intention Behind the Words
August Wilson. Image Source: The Estate of August Wilson (Courtesy of PBS)
Wilson’s works have drawn enormous acclaim, but it is unlikely he knew the breadth of the transformative impact of his words and the worlds he built. At the time, he was transcribing stories to give solidity to the men, women, and children who were treated as non-representative and rendered invisible by the circumstances of their pigment. With each stroke, he was not only calling attention to their existence but also laying down the framework of a lasting legacy. He was taking snapshots in time of those who spoke loudly through the lives they lived,, but were somehow, in the grand scheme of things, muted.
Wilson himself once spoke to the purpose of his narrative work:
“I think my plays offer white Americans a different way to look at Black Americans.” For instance, in Fences, they see a garbageman, a person they don’t really look at, although they see a garbageman every day. By looking at Troy’s life, white people find out that the content of this Black garbageman’s life is affected by the same things: love, honor, beauty, betrayal, duty. Recognizing that these things are as much a part of his life as theirs can affect how they think about and deal with Black people in their lives.”
The Artists Who Carried His Words
How does one know when intention gives way to fulfillment, particularly when those very thoughts are carried over and received by individuals who never sat with Wilson during those hours he labored at the task? Laurence Fishburne, who had the opportunity to hold the finished words of this great artisan in his mind, his voice, and his steps as he brought them to life, offered this reflection:
“Wilson had the ability to limn the divine from the commonplace and to draw inspiration from and illuminate the ordinary in a manner that simultaneously revealed, celebrated, and transcended the essence of the subject. His characters were common folk, by turns mercenary and compassionate, alive with laughter and sorrow, full of hope and choked with despair, and simply human.”
Washington’s own introduction to Wilson’s work proved equally unforgettable. Per the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Washington once noted,
“I was first introduced to August Wilson in the eighties when Charles Dutton did Ma Rainey and James Earl Jones and Courtney Vance did Fences. I’ve long considered August Wilson to be one of the five greatest playwrights in American history.”
That impact is what is now driving the expansion of Wilson’s works into television and film. Washington committed to sharing those works with a wider world and, per Blex Media, secured the rights from the August Wilson estate to adapt all ten plays in the American Century Cycle. Completing these adaptations has been described as a defining goal for the remainder of Washington’s career.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone on Stage Now
While the world awaits the screen adaptation, there is no need to rest on one’s laurels to drink in the art. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is currently running on Broadway. Its run began on March 30th and is being directed by the incomparable Debbie Allen, who will herself carry a role in the film adaptation. Blex Media confirms that Allen, currently directing the acclaimed revival at the Barrymore Theatre, has been tapped to helm the film as well.
Of equal note is the attachment of actress Taraji P. Henson. Henson has been given a double opportunity to engage with Wilson’s work. She secured the role of Bertha in the Broadway production, notably marking her debut on one of the most legendary stages in theater history, and she will bring her light to the film as well. Henson calls her attachment to both projects fate, describing it as “kismet.” As she told Playbill,
“This was kismet; the timing was incredible. It’s Debbie Allen. It’s August Wilson. I went to Howard University. We studied all of August Wilson’s plays. I even had the pleasure of meeting him. He came to speak to my acting class my freshman year. So it just feels like this was in the stars for me.”
The Story at the Heart of It All
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is the story of a husband and wife who welcome in travelers on a transformative path, those leaving what they knew, with its shackles meant to bend the back, the mind, and the will, in hope of something better and greater.
The Great Migration lies just beneath the surface of the action: recently freed Black Americans travel to and from Seth Holly’s Pittsburgh boarding house, where he explains that they come “walking, riding, carrying their Bibles, coming up here from the country carrying Bibles and guitars, looking for freedom.”
Wilson’s own creative foundation was rooted in a self-directed education. As the August Wilson African American Cultural Center notes, he often explained
that he received his education from what he called the four B’s: the blues, the art of painter Romare Bearden, the writing of poet Amiri Baraka, and the work of writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. As Wilson himself declared, “The foundation of my playwriting is poetry.”
What Comes Next
Production is expected to begin later this year. Given that so many of those associated with the film project are presently committed to the Broadway production, the delay is fully in step with the projected timeline. There has never been a time as ripe as the present, primarily because it is a gift overflowing with wonders. One can hardly imagine what will come next.
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