Fences- August Wilson – 1986
Fences by August Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m ashamed to say that I’d never taken the time to read the 1987
Pulitzer prize winning play “Fences” by writer August Wilson. I’ve really hurt myself by not
reading it, it is an enjoyable, informative and instructive play.
The play centers around Troy Maxson. He reminds me of the
quintessential black patriarch. Consumed with his own understanding and
experiences with the world, he narrows the scope of life to that which
is comprehensible to him. Anything outside of this sphere is nonsense.
His tendency to judge his son’s future by his past is deceptively
destructive to not only his relationship with his son Cory, but Cory’s
future and subsequent generations. In Troy we find that cantankerous
man growing old and struggling to stay afloat in a world changing
around him. His life is like concrete quick sand both knocking him
about and swallowing him up at the same time.
His love for his wife seems to be of legend, yet and still, he ends
up having a relationship outside of his marriage that produces a child.
He judges his actions by his heart, failing to consider how his actions
jeopardize the relationship he had so fully built with his wife. In him
we find the drive which insecurity breeds in clinging to one’s own
understanding in the midst of a complex world of complex relationships.
The workmanship of Wilson’s dialogue is amazing. I found myself
reading out loud, portraying the gruff, shortened sentences of Troy and
the seemingly long and thoughtful words of Rose. The dialogue rolls
along pushing into the next idea and thought, wrapping the reader up
and placing them in the yard surrounded by the fence.
Throughout the play, Troy transforms before our eyes as he is played
against the supporting characters who reflect his goodness, his
stubbornness, his selfishness. In them we see the irony of the fence he
slowly builds over time. Even as the play states, a fence is not only
used to keep others out but also to keep some in. At the conclusion of
the play, we find those who are within and without the gates that
Troy’s life has constructed.
An excellent play!!
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