Review: AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES AT Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Strike one! Troy Maxson is at bat ready to hit a homerun in the game of life. What could possibly go wrong for the former Negro League baseball player in 1950’s Pittsburgh? Lots!

Maxson and his family are center stage in August Wilson’s play FENCES, a Pulitzer Prize winner, now playing at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. Despite the deep societal and personal issues that rock characters’ lives, FENCES offers a deeply satisfying theater experience. See it before it leaves Baltimore on March 8th. But grab a ticket ASAP because the best ticket availability is during its final week. Spoiler alert: it’s a powerhouse production worth seeing.

Directed by Regional L. Douglas, FENCES features impressive casting that gives audiences a stoop-level view of a family navigating life’s ups and downs. The title of the play is August Wilson’s nod to a fence that Troy’s wife begs him to build. More so it’s a nod to the barriers—visible and invisible—people erect for myriad reasons. Especially when dreams don’t come true.

The play begs the question, what is the American dream? Related to that, what happens when it is within range but out of reach for certain people?

Troy’s life yields some answers. His life is hard. An unfulfilled dream makes it even more so. He has a seemingly good union job. But it’s not ideal for an MLB-aspirant. A promotion to garbage truck driver can’t make up for Troy’s unrealized desire to play baseball as a career. If anything, it deepened his search for joy amid despair—and his frustrations! (He later blocks his son Cory’s dream to play college football.)

FENCES reminds audiences that dreams are powerful drivers of some of the most heroic and villainous, romantic and tragic stories ever to appear on the page—or stage. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s captivating production of FENCES brings this truth to bear over and over again. It’s equally heartwarming and funny and heart-breaking and sad.

Go see it for the love of August Wilson’s work. Stay for the impressive casting and story that bring audiences to the edges of their seat.

First up: the bond between Troy Maxson, played by DeJeanette Horne, and Jim Bono, played by Aaron P. Watkins. Today, we’d call Troy and Clay’s friendship a bromance.

But no such word for "brothers from another mother" existed in the 1950’s Pittsburgh that brought them together, first during a stint in prison. Their friendship that began in prison is a game changer for them, setting them up for a future of a steady mix of male bonding and trash talking that is a breath of fresh air in the trash heap of a segregated nation determined to keep Black people from ever getting to first base. The friends become trash collectors and co-workers.

Horne and Watkins superbly step into their roles from FENCES’s start, masterfully drawing the audience into their brotherhood. Their well-timed humor and playfulness backed by deeper discussions, and later conflict due to Troy’s infidelity, set audiences up to be both cheered and crushed over the timeline of the men’s friendship. Plus, Horne and Watkins bring their characters to life in ways that invite closer examinations of male friendship and how good it could be.

Next up: romance. While his dream to be an MLB player never materialized, Troy hits a homerun with his marriage to Rose, played by Lolita Marie. The best way to describe the characters’ relationship? It’s complicated.

DeJeanette Horne and Lolita Marie make it easy to root for their characters’ love life. It’s mushy, fresh, hopeful. Until it’s not as Troy later strikes out at bat in the marriage. The once seemingly enviable relationship, especially in 1950’s segregated America, breaks down due to Troy’s infidelity. He fathers a daughter with his side piece, who dies in childbirth. Rose is disappointed and angry—and so is the audience who was rooting for their relationship and Black joy.

Bringing another woman’s baby into their family life further complicates and benches the couple’s love as they raise Raynell (BelleGabrielle Willow). One of the most powerful scenes in the play occurs during the couple’s discussion of the pregnancy and why Troy looked for happiness outside his home.  DeJeanette Horne and Lolita Marie’s hit that scene out the park!

Next up: Depictions of family life through the lenses of Troy’s troubled relationships with his sons Lyons (Evan T. Carrington) and Cory (Isaiah C. Evans), and brother Gabriel (Shakill Jamal).  Memorable performances by cast members in those roles help drive FENCES into a must-see category of plays on stage this winter. Be ready for the whirlwind emotions and the yearning for more of this cast and August Wilson’s work.

FENCES is the second play presented by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company as part of Baltimore’s August Wilson Celebration. To date, six plays have been presented at city theaters.