When playwright August Wilson finally decided to kill off Aunt Ester, the fictional epicenter and matriarch of his monumental 10-play series chronicling the black struggle in the 20th century, he cried for a week. His spirit woman had been born in his mind back in 1619, the first year Africans were brought to America as slaves. He kept her alive throughout as corporeal connection to the spiritual roots of all African-American people.
But by the 1980s, when blacks were killing blacks for drug money and sneakers, Wilson sadly concluded this bond was forever severed. So in “King Hedley II,” he noted Ester’s death at 367 years – and then went into mourning. As did many in October, when Wilson died after completing his landmark literary journey that will educate and resonate for centuries. For Wilson was, in many ways, the real Aunt Ester.
Before “Gem of the Ocean,” written ninth but chronologically Wilson’s first chapter, audiences had never actually seen Ester on stage. “Gem,” now being presented by the Denver Center Theatre Company, is our long-awaited first look at this great woman in whom Wilson packs centuries of strength and struggle into an already withered, 285- year-old frame.
“Gem” is set in 1904 Pittsburgh, where former slaves have been granted freedom but no rights to do anything with it. Ester’s home is a sanctuary where old underground warriors seek refuge, and young men in turmoil seek to have their souls washed clean. Outside, chaos reigns after the death of a black man who, when accused of stealing a bag of nails, has jumped into the river to his death. To some, his suicide is his confession. To Ester (the luminous Marlene Warfield), this is an innocent man who would rather die in truth than live in a lie.
When the local mill is then set aflame, any black man is in danger of the law. But Wilson never goes for easy antagonists. “The law” here is Caesar (Terrence Riggins). He’s not some stereotypical white oppressor but something far more menacing – he’s one of their own; a black, ex-con slumlord empowered to maintain order only as the white man defines it.
“Gem” has indelible characters, all the oratorical grandeur one might expect and draws sprawling biblical analogies that will keep theologians busy for years. But “Gem” is unique for keeping one foot in the cold, cruel word and the other in the metaphysical.
Israel Hicks, who is now just one play away (“Radio Golf”) from becoming the first director in the world to helm Wilson’s full cycle, maintains a remarkable balance, thanks in part to creative sound techniques and uniformly awe-inspiring performances.
When Ester is approached for absolution by a young man with the heady name of Citizen Barlow (Michael Eaddy), she dispatches him on an epic journey to the mythic “City of Bones” that not only will connect him to his heritage but anoint him as the next generation of the resistance. In this huge, beautifully realized scene steered by marvelous oration and audience imagination, Ester’s living-room transforms into the hull of a slave ship called the Gem of the Ocean, which, according to legend, capsized in the Atlantic and rests below in a city built entirely from the bones of all Africans who did not survive passage to America. There, Barlow hears whispers of his ancestors that may as well be coming from Wilson himself: “Remember me.”
Hicks’ production will be long remembered for the absolute confidence in every performance, also including the great Charles Weldon as an aging underground conductor; Kim Staunton as Ester’s protégé Black Mary; and Jamie Horton as the lone white character Selig, a sympathetic comrade.
“Gem” sets the table for a series that has been dubbed “The Children of Esther.” And while it is to the benefit of any audience to perhaps know some of the previously written works, each stands alone as a singular snapshot of an America you would otherwise never know.
For Wilson doggedly fixed his attention on the downtrodden lower-class blacks, who in every decade of the 20th century shared a commonality of oppression and discrimination. But in almost every case, Wilson managed to turn the end of each piece into a miraculous, if tiny, beacon of hope.
“Gem” does not end in a justifiable angry diatribe. This is a redemption song, a reminder to all the oppressed that the source of strength and survival is within. How else to interpret this terrible tragic story that nonetheless ends with the hopeful final charge, “So, live!”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
**** | “Gem of the Ocean”
DRAMA|Denver Center Theatre Company|Written by August Wilson|Directed by Israel Hicks|Starring Marlene Warfield, Terrence Riggins, Kim Staunton, Charles Weldon, Michael Eaddy, Harvy Blanks and Jamie Horton|At the Space Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets|THROUGH FEB. 25|6:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 1:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday|2 hours, 45 minutes|$29-$45|303-893- 4100, denvercenter.org, King Soopers stores or TicketsWest, 866-464-2626.
