Muddy Waters wails as the lights dim at the Temple of Music and Art.
“Well, now, there’s two, there’s two trains running/ Well, they ain’t never, no, going my way.”
The song launches us into August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running,” now on stage at the Arizona Theatre Company.
It also sets the tone for this sometimes somber, sometimes joyous and often funny production directed by Lou Bellamy, a veteran of Wilson’s plays.
Wilson wrote a play about African-American life in each decade of the last century. This takes place in the late ‘60s, when economic hardship was a way of life for people of color, as was bigotry and police brutality.
The atmosphere is thick with all of those at Memphis Lee’s Diner, sitting in the way of urban renewal. Memphis (James Craven), who is still bitter about being run off his farm by a couple of white guys years earlier, won’t budge until the city gives him his asking price of $25,000, about $10,000 more than they are offering.
The diner beats with an immense heart as the regulars come in. There’s Sterling (Cedric Mays), who recently got out of prison and has discovered the black power movement. He’s got his eyes on Risa (Erika LaVonn), the cafe’s waitress, whose shuffling back and forth in a pair of mules that barely stay on her feet is a sort of music that speaks of exhaustion and a don’t-bother-me attitude. Wolf (Lester Perry) is a numbers runner who longs for love but settles for brief encounters.
Holloway (Alan Bomar Jones) is the philosopher with a spiritual base, and Hambone (a heartbreaking Ahanti Young) is a man who is mentally challenged but cannot forget that the white butcher cheated him out of a ham he was owed. He spends every morning standing outside the butcher shop screaming “I want my ham.”
West (Dennis W. Spears) is the neighborhood undertaker who still mourns the death of his wife, is the envy of everyone else because he has more money than others and carries a touch of arrogance.
All the action takes place in Memphis’ cafe. They wander in and out, place bets with Wolf, sip their coffee and talk about the anguish of the past, the desperation of the present, the hope of the future.
Bellamy and this ensemble cast have done many of Wilson’s plays together, and there’s an ease they have with each other on stage that serves the story well.
Wilson’s dialogue is staggering it is so good, and to hear his words through these actors is a gift.
This may be the best ensemble cast we’ve seen on ATC’s stage since — well, since Bellamy directed Wilson’s “Fences” in 2016.
There is such tenderness in this play, as well as fierce frustration. LaVonn’s hard-as-cement Risa melts with humanity when Hambone comes in to the cafe; Memphis’ fury at the injustice toward black people is palpable in Craven’s hands; May’s Sterling is all bluster but shows his heart with deep honesty. Each actor shimmied into their character’s skin and gave us a slice of life we are not likely to forget.
This production is fat with honesty and heart. And this astounding cast makes us feel every wrong, every emotion, every thrill.
