August Wilson’s play “Fences” is a must-see. The play brings an energy on stage that’s palpable, never disappoints. The cast of “Fences” give a riveting performance, and Lester Purry’s imposing presence fills the stage with the delivery of his lines that have both comedy and drama in it. [As published in West Palm Beach Magazine]
Fences is a play written about a black family in a Pittsburgh neighborhood in 1957, but it is also about the coming of age in the life of a broken black man named Troy Maxson[Lester Purry].
From the moment August Wilson’s play “Fences” starts, there’s an energy on stage that’s palpable. Palm Beach Dramaworks never disappoints with the choices it makes in productions, whether it’s a comedy, musical or drama, like in this case. The craftsmanship of the set is more than you would expect from a regional theatre. But it is dramas like “Fences” that make PBDW’s tagline “theatre to think about” glimmer like a neon sign on Broadway.
Through his protagonist’s story, Wilson tells a story of duality—about a man sitting on both sides of a fence in his efforts to balance the good and bad in life. Perhaps Wilson’s own life inspired the story, as his mother was black, and his father was white. His father was an absentee father and his mother divorced him and married David Bedford, an ex-convict who had been denied a football scholarship because he was black.
The original Broadway production debuted in 1987, with James Earl Jones playing the role of Troy and Courtney B. Vance making his Broadway debut as Cory. “Fences” returned to Broadway in 2010, with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis playing the leads, in both the play and film version in 2016. Read more