Fences (play)

Fences
Written by	August Wilson
Date premiered	1983
Place premiered	Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Waterford, Connecticut
Original language	English
Series	The Pittsburgh Cycle: Gem of the Ocean Joe Turner's Come and Gone Ma Rainey's Black Bottom The Piano Lesson Seven Guitars Fences Two Trains Running Jitney King Hedley II Radio Golf
Subject	A Negro Baseball league player, is now a garbageman; his bitterness affects his loved ones
Genre	Drama
Setting	1950s; Backyard of an urban home in a North American industrial city
IBDB profile

Fences is a 1983 play by American playwright August Wilson. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson's ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle. Like all of the Pittsburgh plays, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes. The play won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play.

Plot

The focus of Wilson's attention in Fences is Troy, a fifty-three year-old head of household who struggles with providing for his family and with his obsession about cheating death. The location is never specified but seems to be Pittsburgh as there are several references to some of its notable institutions. Troy was a great baseball player in his youth, during which time he learned to play in prison. But because the color barrier had not yet been broken in Major League Baseball, Troy was unable to make good money or to save for the future. He now lives a menial life along with his wife, Rose, his son Cory (who still lives in the house at the play's opening), and his younger brother Gabriel, an ex-soldier whose war injury occasionally causes him to act crazy. Lyons is Troy's son from a previous marriage, and lives outside the home. Bono is Troy's best friend. Troy had taken Gabriel's money to buy the house he currently lives in, since Gabriel never got a key to show his independence.

The play begins on payday, with Troy and Bono drinking and talking. Troy's character is revealed through his speech about how he went up to their boss, Mr. Rand, and asked why Black men are not allowed to drive garbage trucks (Troy works as a garbage man); Rose and Lyons join in the conversation. Lyons, a musician, has come to ask for money, confident that he will receive it from his father and promises to pay him back because his girlfriend Bonnie just got a job. Troy gives his son a hard time, but eventually gives him the requested ten dollars after Rose persuades him to do so. An affair between Troy and a woman named Alberta (who is never seen in the play) is revealed, followed by the discovery that Alberta was pregnant, and died in childbirth. During the final act, Raynell, the daughter conceived in Troy's union with Alberta, is seen as a happy seven-year-old; Cory comes home from war, and after initially refusing to go to his father's funeral due to long-standing resentment, is convinced by his mother to pay his respects to his father—the man who, though hard-headed and often poor at demonstrating affection, nevertheless loved his son.

The fence referred to by the play's title is an unfinished fence in Troy's yard. It is not immediately known why Troy wants to build it, but a dramatic monologue in the second act shows how he conceptualizes it as an allegory—to keep the Grim Reaper away. Analogously, the fence is not completed within the course of Troy's actions; thus, he does not live to the play's conclusion. Rose also wanted to build the fence and forced her husband to start it as a means of securing what was her own, keeping what belonged inside in and what should stay outside stay out.

Productions

Fences premiered on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre on March 26, 1987 and closed on June 26, 1988 after 525 performances and 11 previews. Directed by Lloyd Richards, the cast featured James Earl Jones (Troy Maxson), Mary Alice (Rose), Ray Aranha (Jim Bono), Frankie R. Faison (Gabriel), and Courtney B. Vance (Cory).

The production won the Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Actor (James Earl Jones), Best Featured Actress (Mary Alice), and Best Direction (Lloyd Richards), as well as the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Actor in a Play (Jones), and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Alice). It also received Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Faison and Vance).

The first Broadway revival of the play opened at the Cort Theatre on April 26, 2010 with a limited 13-week engagement. Directed by Kenny Leon, the production starred Denzel Washington (Troy Maxson) and Viola Davis (Rose) as the married couple struggling with changing U.S. race relations. The revival was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning three for Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor in a Play (Denzel Washington), and Best Actress in a Play (Viola Davis).

Awards and nominations

Awards

• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play (1987)
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1987)
• Tony Award for Best Play (1987)
• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play (2010)
• Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play (2010)

Further reading

• Wilson, August (1986). Fences: A Play (First edition ed.). New York: Plume. ISBN 0452264014. 
• Vecsey, George (1987-05-10). "Sports of the Times; Ray Dandridge, The Hall of Fame and 'Fences'". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/10/sports/sports-of-the-times-ray-dandridge-the-hall-of-fame-and-fences.html. Retrieved 2009-06-15. 
• Napierkowski, Marie Rose (ed.) (January 2006) [1998]. "Fences". Drama for Students. vol. 3. Detroit: Gale; eNotes.com. http://www.enotes.com/fences. Retrieved 2008-06-26. 

External links

• Fences at the Internet Broadway Database