Review Highlights: JITNEY - Black Theatre Troupe

Ken Love and Rapheal Hamilton
Photo by Elizabeth Montgomery

  

highlights from local critics reviews - (click link at bottom of each review to read complete review)

Click here for more information on this production that runs through February 22

"August Wilson's Jitney at Black Theatre Troupe is a vibrant and emotionally rich presentation of one of the playwright's most grounded and humane works. Brought to life by a strong ensemble cast, the play unfolds as a rich slice-of-life portrait, capturing the humor, frustrations, and quiet dignity of men whose lives intersect in a small, Pittsburgh cab station. The actors work seamlessly together, creating a lived-in sense of community that immediately draws the audience into Wilson's world....The cast gives each character a distinct presence. Becker is portrayed with quiet authority and emotional restraint by Ken Love, while as Booster, his son, Rapheal Hamilton brings raw intensity and vulnerability to their fraught relationship. ...Rachel Finley's direction allows the scenes to breathe and relationships to develop organically. There are, however, a few lengthy scene changes and some odd choices involving musical underscoring and the constant sound of a ticking clock that, especially during a few monologues, occasionally interrupts the forward momentum and pulls focus from Wilson's powerful language and intriguing characters. "   - Gil Benbrook, TalkinBroadway.com (click here to read the complete review)

"JITNEY may not reach the towering heights of Wilson’s later works. For all its power, the play can feel uneven, a trait mirrored in the production’s pacing. Scene transitions frequently stall in longer than necessary silent blackouts, and the lighting proves oddly overbright for a setting meant to survive on a single bulb. The over-illumination diminishes the sense of a jitney station meant to be perpetually hovering in dusk. Still, the play is suffused with the sympathetic wisdom that defines Wilson’s writing. He looks at lives many would dismiss as small or defeated and finds in them an undeniable nobility."   - David Appleford, Broadway World (click here to read the complete review)