Photo Credit: Michael Hardy
THE SHOWBUZZ: "Seven Guitars" Fills the Playhouse
by Sean MacMullen, Theatre Critic
The Grunion
May 23, 2019
It was in his seventh grade class that playwright August Wilson found history was one of his favorite subjects. His fascination with events prior to 1957 would lead him to, in his words, “ ...to restore the black experience to a primary role, to create in essence a world in which the black American is the spiritual center, thus giving the events of history a different perspective.”
“Seven Guitars” at the Long Beach Playhouse is part of a cycle of plays by Wilson chronicling every decade of the 20th century. The Pittsburgh Cycle is primarily set in Pittsburgh's Hill District, an African-American neighborhood, which becomes a place of legends that he imbues with mystery and spirituality all the while writing about everyday people.
Set in the backyard of Vera Datsun, Floyd ‘Schoolboy’ Barton is back from a stint in the workhouse on trumped up charges. As usual, he is dreaming big, but now he’s also got a hit record and an invitation to record again. Barton is driven to get to Chicago and fulfill his destiny. He just needs the money to do so.
However, this isn’t Floyd’s story, this is a story of community and family. Director, Rovin Jay, trusts the capability of his talented cast and the rhythm of Wilson’s dialogue to keep the storytelling crisp and delicious. Latonya Kitchen (Vera) and Ebonie Marie (Louise) are engaging and authentic in every action and word. Ms. Kitchen can tear your heart out with a look and Ms. Marie’s subtle and perfectly timed physical humor and turn of phrase produces some of the most memorable comic moments of the evening.
Wilson is also given to writing beautiful monologues that Director, Rovin Jay, carefully kept from becoming “soapbox” rants. Instead, we listen to William Warren (Hedley) and Rayshawn Chism (Floyd Barton) craft, passionate, heartfelt and thoughtful musings. Both men create charismatic personas that are fully engaging. Mr. Warren’s unguarded performance as Hedley perfectly plays counterpoint to Mr. Chism’s calculated and manipulative Floyd. Mr. Chism did seem to suffer from some opening night jitters, but quickly found his way back to the reality of the play.
The rest of the cast is solid and provides the needed constant drumbeat. Jay Reed (Canewell), Gilbert Roy DeLeon (Red) and Justyn High (Ruby) are skilled actors whose devotion to the authenticity of the world is to their credit. Reed, DeLeon and High carefully find their characters hearts crafting transparent layered portrayals. In the hands of the actors you could feel the dirt under their feet, the splinters in the wood and smell the roses blooming in the backyard.
While “Seven Guitars” is a detailed portrait of an existence filled with short term joy, and dreams just out of reach there is plenty of bright humor to balance the pain contained inside Wilson’s well composed world. If you have never seen a play by Wilson, you should. I believe this is a perfect introduction. If you are a fan you will be satisfied by this earnest rendering .
Theatre Review: Seven Guitars at the Long Beach Playhouse
by Anita W. Harris, Senior Writer
Signal Tribune
May 31, 2019
One of six plays by Pulitzer-prize winning playwright August Wilson that each take place in a different decade, Seven Guitars– at the Long Beach Playhouse (LBPH) through June 15– is a moving meditation on hope and desperation inflected through the African-American experience. Set in 1948 Pittsburgh, the story focuses on one musician but is very much an ensemble portrait of seven men and women deciding how to live their best lives in the shadows of oppression and uncertainty.
Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton (Rayshawn Chism), a blues musician whose recorded single is a hit on the radio, is itching to return to Chicago at the invite of the record label. But he wants Vera (Latonya Kitchen)– who has already been burned once by his abandonment– to go with him.
This story is actually told in flashback with the play opening in the wake of Floyd’s funeral. We don’t know how he has died, but we see Vera grieving, along with fellow musicians Canewell (Jay Reed) and Red (Gilbert Roy DeLeon). Also sharing Vera’s common backyard are sharp-tongued landlady Louise (Ebonie Marie) and brooding older neighbor Hedley (William Warren).
The days leading up to Floyd’s funeral comprise most of the play, filled with banter among these likable characters, along with songs, stories and Hedley’s ominous, Bible-infused musings as he sharpens knives. Louise’s visiting niece Ruby (Justyn High) soon adds her alluring energy (and her own problems) to the mix.
The interactions among the men reveal a shared sense of oppression. The threat of being arrested at any moment just for being black informs their choices. Their simmering feelings find expression in music and stories, but also threaten to erupt in violence– each character has a weapon and pulls a gun or knife when things get heated.
We thus viscerally feel how the men’s desires to achieve their dreams and live a fulfilled life is persistently thwarted by white power and whim. Desperate choices seem inevitable and result in tragic consequences. The women are left defensive, making decisions and building lives from what little the men can offer and the crumbs they leave behind.
Hedley, between his Caribbean heritage and mental incapacity, invokes a more mystical feeling of thwarted black legacy expressed through his memories, dreams and songs. He also adds uncertainty and foreboding, at one point unexpectedly executing a rooster.
Wilson’s poetic words that dive deep are given excellent voice by the well-cast ensemble. Marie as the quick-witted Louise is especially vivid, often making the audience laugh with her observations and delivery. Reed as Canewell is similarly true to character, expressively spinning yarns. DeLeon as Red is delightfully charming; Kitchen as Vera is believably warm-hearted and conflicted; Chism makes a very suitable and emotive Floyd; and High as Ruby plays her young role with confidence.
But Warren as Hedley is perhaps the most transcendent, embodying in his character the roots of black pain, the brokenness of its collective suffering, its visceral anger that lashes out in violence and its intense faith in redemption and a chance for wholeness. He is the spiritual center of the play and the character through which we feel the most devastation.
Seven Guitars is ultimately a three-hour meditation on the black experience, resonant as much today as in 1948, judging by the audience’s verbal responses during one Sunday-afternoon performance. Desperation and hope are also part of the shared human experience– we see ourselves in these characters making the most of what they have, living for their dreams.