ABOUT THE PLAY

 

Set in 1970 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh that is served by a makeshift taxi company, Jitney is a beautiful addition to the author's decade by decade cycle of plays about the black American experience in the twentieth century. "Explosive. . . Crackles with theatrical energy." N.Y. Daily News. "Could be described as just a lot of men sitting around talking. But the talk has such varied range and musicality, and it is rendered with such stylish detail, that a complete urban symphony emerges. . .. Drivers return from jobs with stories that summon an entire ethos. . .. Throughly engrossing, Jitney holds us in charmed captivity." N.Y. Times. "Comic, soulful and immensely moving." Time Out. "A transport of delight! So vividly written . . . it keeps you steadily amused, concerned and moved." N.Y. Magazine. Winner of the New York Drama Critics Award for Best New Play and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off Broadway Play

 

CAST & CREATIVE

Youngblood - Russell Andrews

Turnbo - Stephen Mckinley Henderson

Fielding - Anthony Chisholm

Doub - Barry Shabaka Henley

Shealy - Willis Burks II

Philmore - Leo V Finnie III

Becker - Roger Robinson

Rena - Yvette Ganier

Booster - Keith Randolph Smith

 

Author - August Wilson

Director - Marion Mcclinton

Set Designer - David Gallo

Costume Designer - Susan Hilferty

Lighting Designer - Donald Holder

Sound Designer - Rob Milburn

Associate Sound - Designer Ken Travis

 

QUOTES & REVIEWS

 

A masterpiece in human relations, Jitney is all about life: that mysterious mixture of laughter, tears and danger. Although we experience its routine everyday it still manages to surprise us. Jitney is all about life: sometimes you know what's gonna' happen after such a tensed dialogue; and sometimes you're left stunned. Wonderful set, extremely sensitive lighting and a company of elderly actors who blossom into sheer, human poetry. Jitney is life - experience it.

Whatsonstage

 

There aren't many plays as exhilarating as August Wilson's Jitney, first performed in Pittsburgh in 1982, but only now receiving its British premiere. And there aren't many productions with the rolling ease of Marion McClinton's. Floating on a raft of music, its action is by turns casual and ferocious - and always expressively choreographed.

 

This drama makes most plays look puny. Wilson, the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and most famous in the States as the author of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, is a playwright with a purpose. An ardent supporter of black theatre and a fervent opponent of colour-blind casting (of the kind recently practised by the National Theatre), he has set himself to chart the experience of African-Americans. He plans to write a play for each decade of the twentieth century. He is creating an impassioned and important chronicle.

 

In summary, Wilson's work sounds straightforward, even conservative. He documents lives; he tells stories; he's clear and outspoken, not elusive or oblique; he makes you want to know what will happen next. But in performance, his project is a radical one: the idiom, the structure and the assumptions of his plays are entirely their own.

 

Consider the hero of Jitney (the title means 'taxi'): it's not an individual but a group. The play follows a few days in the lives of some Pittsburgh cab drivers: the survival of the firm is threatened and there's a sudden death, but most of the action is given over to the bickering, companionship and minor crises of the men as they rub along together. Consider the distinctive movement of the play: not one grand arc, but a series of small scenes snaking around each other, in which no one drama is subordinate to another. Watching it is like listening to a series of jazz solos. Consider the rich use of music - from Marvin Gaye to 'Willow Weep': it doesn't merely drift moodily, but continues the action by other means. In the closing moments, the men, their quarrelling silenced by grief and anxiety, lounge around for long, mute minutes, with the soundtrack taking over from dialogue.

 

Wilson's street talk (hard to grasp for the first few minutes) is terrifically rendered by an excellent New York cast which contains not one limp actor. Among a chorus of great, growly voices and agile movers, Anthony Chisholm is outstanding as the laid-back drunk, and Yvette Ganier (in a part which was to have been played by Linda Powell, daughter of Colin) beautifully judged as the one woman - given a forceful shout - in an all-male cast. David Gallos's design sets the cab office in front of a huge, transparent window through which you glimpse black chimneys and crumbling warehouses; long lean cars are slewed up at the sidewalk. It is, as the entire production is, both naturalistic and evocative.

The Observer