Fences

Fences takes place in 1957, two years after the Montgomery Bus Boycott began and ten years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line that by so-called “gentlemen’s agreement” kept African-American players out of the major leagues.

Fences is a play about family, responsibility, love, friendship, and respect composed of richly complex and compelling characters and relationships.

Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro Baseball League labors as a sanitation worker in segregated Pittsburgh. Excluded as a black man from the major leagues during his prime, Troy’s bitterness takes its toll on his relationships with his wife and his son, who now wants his own chance to play ball.

One of August Wilson’s best plays, Fences is the sixth play in a series by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. It is a bittersweet drama; compassionate, moving, and thoughtful. Reflecting life, it has moments of both uplift and sorrow.

This blockbuster drama originally starred James Earl Jones as Troy Maxon and Denzel Washington starred in the 2010 Tony Award-winning revival.

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August Wilson’s Fences takes place in 1957, two years after the Montgomery Bus Boycott began and ten years after baseball player Jackie Robinson broke the color line that, by the so-called “gentlemen’s agreement,” kept African-American players out of the major leagues.

Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro Baseball League labors as a sanitation worker in segregated Pittsburgh. Frustrated that he’s required to carry the garbage while only white employees are allowed to drive the trucks, and bitter that he was excluded as a black man from the major leagues during his prime, Troy’s resentments take a toll on his relationships with his wife, Rose, and his son, Cory, who now wants his chance to play ball.

Fences begins with Troy and his best friend, Bono, sharing a bottle and letting off steam in the backyard after work on a Friday night. Troy recounts a confrontation with his boss about the inequality on the job, and as the liquor takes hold, he broods about Cory playing football, because of his own experiences with racial discrimination. Finally, Bono voices a suspicion that Troy is involved in an extramarital relationship. Troy sidesteps the subject, succumbing to his tendency to spin tales about his life.

Saturday morning Troy and Cory clash while constructing a fence Rose has asked them to build. Cory is scheduled to meet with a recruiter, who would present Troy papers which, if he’d sign, would secure his son a position at a college. Troy is impossible and says he won’t sign anything unless Cory works after school, during football practice. This is the first in a series of “strikes” against Cory.

Soon after, Troy confesses to Rose that he’s had an affair with Alberta and that he’s going to be a father to her baby. Shocked, Rose can’t believe Troy would do such a thing at his age, and stands up for herself, blaming Troy for not sacrificing himself enough for the preservation of the relationship. Walking in on Troy and Rose fighting, Cory is angered at the sight of Troy roughly holding Rose by the arm, and fights his dad, earning another “strike.”

Later, we learn that Alberta died giving birth to Troy’s baby, Raynell. Rose agrees to raise the baby as her own.

On another one of Troy’s Friday nights drinking in the backyard, Troy and Cory end their relationship in an argument over Troy’s infidelity to Rose.

Eight years later, the family – Cory, Lyons (Troy’s son from a wife before Rose), Rose, Raynell, and Gabriel (Troy’s brother, who suffers from a brain injury and thinks he’s an angel) – are gathered with Bono preparing for Troy’s funeral. Cory refuses to attend and Rose reprimands him. Cory is obligated to go, as Troy was his father, and refraining from mourning his dad doesn’t make him into a man.

Gabriel enters the scene and tries to play the music of spiritual exaltation with his “trumpet of judgment,” but no sound comes out.