Despite digressions, the song is you: IRT opens "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"
Seth Holly lets wife and residents know the way things should be. The complex verbal music and dark urban rhapsodies of August Wilson carry a variety of appeal to theater companies that can draw upon African-American talent as well as educate and entertain audiences across the racial spectrum, provoking their sense of wonder and highlighting historical truth. Summed up in the ten plays of the Pittsburgh Cycle, the native son's placing each work in a decade of the 20th century gave an evolving focus to his art, as well as a location he knew intimately: the Steel City's Hill District. Indiana Repertory Theatre opened a new production of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" this week, to be shared next month with Syracuse Stage. Along with the Phoenix Theatre, the IRT has a long history with August Wilson shows. In Friday's performance, the strengths and challenges of Wilson's style — verbally flamboyant and thematically spread over a wide swath of Black American...