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A review by book_concierge
Fences by August Wilson
3.0
3.5***
Troy Maxson is a strong man. He has survived a hard childhood and time spent without direction or purpose to become a responsible family man. He went through a time in American history where being proud and black meant facing obstacles that might crush a lesser man. But in the late 1950s things are beginning to change, and Troy Maxson is unsure how to behave in a world that frightens and angers him. What he learned so well in raising himself leaves him with a rigid sense of obligation, but no flexibility to deal with a world, a family, a wife and son he no longer understands.
Too bad my F2F book club decided to read this for discussion this month. I really dislike reading plays – reading is not the medium the playwright intended for reaching his audience. I’ve seen this play performed and it was powerful, dramatic, and thought-provoking. But reading it … I miss all the technique and skill that professional actors bring to translating Wilson’s words and directions into a visceral experience. There are some soliloquies that are exceptional – Troy reliving his boyhood and the event that caused him to leave home at age fourteen; Rose explaining her take on their marriage – but I had a hard time connecting to the characters through reading much of their dialogue on a page vs watching it unfold on the stage.
Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this play. If you get a chance to see a performance, don’t miss it!
Troy Maxson is a strong man. He has survived a hard childhood and time spent without direction or purpose to become a responsible family man. He went through a time in American history where being proud and black meant facing obstacles that might crush a lesser man. But in the late 1950s things are beginning to change, and Troy Maxson is unsure how to behave in a world that frightens and angers him. What he learned so well in raising himself leaves him with a rigid sense of obligation, but no flexibility to deal with a world, a family, a wife and son he no longer understands.
Too bad my F2F book club decided to read this for discussion this month. I really dislike reading plays – reading is not the medium the playwright intended for reaching his audience. I’ve seen this play performed and it was powerful, dramatic, and thought-provoking. But reading it … I miss all the technique and skill that professional actors bring to translating Wilson’s words and directions into a visceral experience. There are some soliloquies that are exceptional – Troy reliving his boyhood and the event that caused him to leave home at age fourteen; Rose explaining her take on their marriage – but I had a hard time connecting to the characters through reading much of their dialogue on a page vs watching it unfold on the stage.
Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this play. If you get a chance to see a performance, don’t miss it!