Sometimes the metaphors get metaphysical, as in the centerpiece of the second act, when Aunt Ester and friends send Citizen on a spiritual journey “sailing” on a boat folded from Ester’s own bill of sale into slavery. With slavery still in the not-distant-enough memories of many of the characters here, Wilson provides much opportunity to reflect on the nature of freedom, opportunity and responsibility. (Though Gem is the only play in which Ester appears onstage, her offstage presence looms large in several others.) Here, she assists a young man named Citizen Barlow (Jerod Haynes), a recent transplant from Alabama who’s wracked with guilt and desperate to “get his soul washed.” Set in Pittsburgh in the first decade of the 20th century, Gem of the Ocean introduces Aunt Ester (Jacqueline Williams), the sage and ancient mystic who becomes a recurring figure as Wilson’s plays progress through the century. It’s Parson’s 22nd Wilson production overall, and it’s hard to imagine any director having a deeper, more lived-in knowledge of a playwright’s oeuvre. Before and after the show, guests will be able to shop at “Hidden Gems: A Celebration of African American Artists & Art,” a pop-up market featuring handmade items.Ĭourt Theatre returns to the work of August Wilson, with Ron OJ Parson helming the earliest-set play in the writer’s Century Cycle. Set in Pittsburgh at the dawn of the 1900s, this play introduces the character of Aunt Ester (Lisa Gaye Dixon), a keeper of African American history who acts as a throughline in the cycle's plays. The Goodman Theatre kicks off 2022 with a revival of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, which launched the playwright's “American Century Cycle”-10 plays set in each decade of the 20th century that chronicle the African American experience.

Gem of the ocean goodman theatre