Writer: August Wilson
Director: Daniel Bailey
Familiar to many from Denzel Washington’s 2016 film, Fences is the sixth in August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle of 10 plays and dates from 1985. In Daniel Bailey’s hands, it’s visceral, intense and arresting.
The plot gives us Troy (Ray Fearon), a refuse collector, trying to keep his temper and his family in 1950s Pittsburgh, when and where black people were definitely second-class citizens. He has excelled at baseball but has been thwarted and served a 15-year prison sentence for murder. He’s also fathered a musical son (Michael Ahomka-Lindsay) by an early relationship. 18 years of marriage to Rose (Madeline Appiah), with whom he has a saucy sexual relationship, has produced another son (Josh Tedeku). Also in the mix is Troy’s younger brother Gabe (Simon-Anthony Rhoden), damaged by war, and his old friend Bono (Everal A Walsh), who is, or tries to be, a grounding influence. That’s the exposition. Developments, of course, come thick and fast.
Fearon is terrific in the central role. Whether Troy is joshing with Bono, fighting his younger son, confronting his wife, taking out his frustrations on whoever happens to be there, he is totally on top of the mood – he even makes his teeth evocatively menacing by grinning widely. Troy is one of tragic drama’s finest examples of a flawed character – more sinned against than sinning, perhaps – and this long role must be a gruelling to do as Lear, but Fearon carries it off with aplomb.
Matching him for excellence is Madeline Appiah, who is very good indeed at eloquent listening without distracting or drawing attention to herself. The first half of the play is, in musical terms, very much the upbeat to the darker, meatier downbeat of the second act. And because Bailey evidently wants to highlight the humour as a contrast to what’s coming, there’s a lot of laughter in Act 1 both on stage and from the audience – once it has tuned in to the very broad, but well-sustained Pittsburgh accents (voice coach: Aundrea Fudge). In the second Act, Appiah finds dignity, authority and eventually, peace in what is a very difficult situation for her character.
Ahomka-Lindsay is suitably optimistic as Lyons, Rhoden finds all the unknowing pathos that Gabe needs, and Walsh makes Bono into a straightforward contrast to Troy. Teneku develops his character impressively, especially in the scene when he finally confronts his father.
The final 10 minutes of the play provide a lovely role for a child and talented Aita Mushuku (who alternates with five others) does a lot to lighten the atmosphere and offer hope for the future – as all but the most gruelling tragedies do
All this is played out on Lily Arnold’s nice set, which gives us a small, two-storey house and its porch. We can see movement inside the house, and sometimes characters lean out of first-floor windows. Fences, which Troy is meant to be repairing – literally and metaphorically – flank the house. The house itself is on a revolve and we eventually see part of the interior clearly.
If you’re new to this play, it’s full of narrative surprises which had the excited press night audience oohing, aahing and commenting as if they were watching television at home. Maybe that spontaneous reaction is simply a testament to the strength of the piece and to this production of it.
Runs until 31 October 2026
