An Analysis of Structure and Setting in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Book Review Example

August Wilson’s period play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” set in August, 1911 at a boardinghouse in Pittsburgh delivers powerful and explosive drama within the confines of a boarding house where the inhabitant’s colorful and vividly rich stories combine in a stew of emotions.

August Wilson limits the setting of his play to a boarding house run by Seth Holly with the assistance of his wife Bertha.  Seth manages the boarding house with a firm hand rallying against any foreseen problems that may erupt and disturb the sanctity of his routine.  The boarding house makes for an intimate theatrical setting as all the characters are self contained in one centralized environment.  “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” is a period play and the Boarding House adequately reflects a typical living situation for this period.  The set is sparse with a large open sky and period pieces representative of the era.  This type of setting lends itself very well in this play where the main focus is on character development and does not suffer the distraction of elaborate set design.  The boarding house is especially ingenious in the fact that it presents an amalgam of characters whose interaction further propels the drama as they play off of each other’s weaknesses.  The house actually serves as an entity in the play with the kitchen as the hub where all the life flows and unifies.  Bertha Holly is the conductor issuing in a harmonious flow.  She provides the necessary equilibrium to Seth’s sometimes tyrannical rule.  Bertha serves the food which ushers in the communal realm of sharing which extends beyond sustenance for the body to spiritual fulfillment.  Bertha is the essential conduit in the assistance of the transition process of new arrivals from the South.

The boarding house is the communal home of the displaced tribe of black people recently freed from slavery who carry the transgressions of oppression. Each character conveys an essence of the Black African experience.  Seth Holly is the proverbial yes man likened to the house Negro slave.  He has become complacent and doesn’t challenge the social stratum.  He has cut his niche in the world where he sees no purpose in reflecting on the oppression suffered during slavery.  Seth compartmentalizes the oppression of slavery and packs it neatly away as he progressively moves forward plying his secure trade and avoiding any waves that would disturb his steady current.  He expresses his opposition to any perceived upheaval in these words:

“These niggers coming up here with that old backward country style of living.  It’s hard enough now without all that ignorant kind of acting.  Ever since slavery got over with there ain’t been nothing but foolish-acting niggers.  Word get out they need men to work in the mill and put in these roads . . . and niggers drop everything and head North looking for freeom.  They don’t know the white fellows coming from all over the world.  White fellow come over and in six months got more than what I got.  But these niggers keep on coming.  Walking . . . riding . . . carrying their Bibles.  That boy one carried a guitar all the way from North Carolina.  What he gonna find out?  What he gonna do with that guitar?  Tis the city.  Niggers coming up here from the backwoods . . . coming up here from the country Bibles and guitars looking for freedom.  They got a rude awakening.”

Bynum Walker in contrast is a throw back to the conjure men of Africa eliciting the lost culture and tribal customs of the African man and woman of America.  Bynum practices the ritual and sacrificial rites reminiscent of the African Vodun religion.  He uses pigeons instead of the atypical chicken to conjure spells and incantations that bind people who are meant to cling to one another; hence his given name Bynum.  Bynum binds all the characters in the play as a religious icon with symbolism conveyed by ritual sacrifice and visions.  The path sought by Bynum leads to rebirth and the assertion of love in the face of obstacles.  Anna S. Blumenthal asserts Bynum’s role in the commune:

“Bynum, the conjure-man and root-worker, is so richly empowered by the acquisition of “the binding song” that he is able to establish meaningful contact, not with just one other, as Reuben does, but with many. Bynum becomes a source of love and wisdom for everyone in the community who chooses to engage with him in conversation. Bynum, who presides over the play like the good magician he is, seems to hold all the drama’s action in his embrace, since he both opens the play with his pigeon sacrifice in the backyard, and closes it with his triumphant recognition of Loomis as “the shiny man.” In perceiving the newly-transformed Loomis as the shiny man, Bynum achieves assurance that his song has done its work in the world. Through the character of Bynum, Wilson shows how one type of positive social interaction with the community can come into being as a result of willingness to sacrifice.”

Bynum’s counterpart in binding folks is Rutherford Selig, nicknamed the people finder.  The inhabitants of the boarding house are lost and in search of other lost souls.  The boarding house is a pit stop on the road of life trafficking desperate souls.  Bynum gives hope for the stranded victims of the hard road.  He speaks of the downtrodden spirit as a song that once found restores the reaffirmed self.  Bynum professes, “Cause you lost from yourselves and where the places come together, where you’re supposed to be alive, your heart kicking in your chest with a song worth singing.”  Selig is the finder of these lost souls whose family ironically has played its part in the oppression of black people.  Selig’s ancestry is equally adept at the taking away of black people.  Bertha argues, “You can call him a People Finder if you want to.  I know Rutherford Selig carries people away too. . . He ain’t never found nobody he ain’t took way.”

Herald Loomis is the central tragic figure in this drama with misery and loss so intense as to barely be contained in that large black overcoat that cloaks him in mystery as a shadowy figure of desolation.  “Finding one’s song,” is dramatized principally in the development of the play’s central figure, the enigmatic wanderer Loomis, who develops from being a man locked inside an identity which has been made meaningless by white brutality, to a renewed sense of a more authentic self which is finally achieved through sacrifice and through his willingness to accept the suffering implicit in that sacrifice.” (Blumenthal, 54)  Redemption is achieved in the commune of diverse characters unified in the shared black experience present in the purgatorial boarding house.

August Wilson’s choice for a two act structure manifests well in a character driven play.   August Wilson plays defy the normal paradigm in terms of structure.  David W. Boles asserts that “In one of my theatre courses, I give students the task of creating a 20 minute version of a play to make them learn just how a play is constructed.  You deconstruct the masters to learn their style and structure.  Students have to “cut out the fat” from the play that doesn’t directly and linearly follow Aristotle’s Poetics.  Students must defend every editorial choice.
Students are able to cut down any ancient or modern play into its 20-minute “essence” without any trouble… except when they come to an August Wilson play.  When they tried to cut down or remove one scene, they found a later scene made no sense.  When they tried to remove a character or combine two characters into one — you couldn’t do it in an August Wilson play — because the familial relationships were messed up.” (United Stage)   There are critics that cite moments in the First Act as drawn out with lulls in the drama.  “Critics almost uniformly praised the play but condemned its structure as ‘sprawling’, ‘off the track’, and ‘confusing’. One was more graphic: ‘Wilson’s elemental power continues to overwhelm the basic structure of his dramas. His efforts remind you of a large man trying to squeeze into a suit two sizes too small. Every now and then, you hear the fabric ripping.’ Implicit in these judgements was the idea that Wilson had wished to link episodes causally through characters, mood association or collage.” (Hay, Samuel A.)  Quite to the contrary; Wilson is adept at presenting intriguing dialogue representative of the time period.  The dialect is dead on and often prosaic. His work has its own rhyme or reason that Wilson magically translates and it cannot be copied.  It is in Act one that the audience develops a real feel for the characters through their varied dialogue.  Act one introduces the characters and reveals the central conflict.  In Act I the audience has the time to fully acquaint themselves with each character and their individual nuances.  The first Act firmly establishes the character development which allows for a focus of the challenges facing the characters in Act II.  Herald Loomis is only introduced at the end of Act One to play up the mysterious element of his character.  His long black overcoat acts as a metaphor for his cloaked persona.  His mystique is off-putting as all his anxiety, anger, and pain reflects on his face and makes for a menacing demeanor.  In Act Two Loomis’s many lavers are shed and his story is revealed.

Wilson’s dialogue has a bluesy melodic syncopation that drives his drama.  He incorporates elements of the period of the play and symbols of the African culture.  In the play the characters are searching for their song.  Song is an important component for the feel of the play.  Almost every character is musically driven.  Jeremy wails on the guitar with wild abandon which illustrates his wandering soul that has to keep in constant motion.  Bynum sings with glorious revelation and on Sundays he drums in accompaniment to Seth’s Harmonica playing, and Jeremy’s musical talents for a juba.  Juba is also reminiscent of a tribal gathering with music, song, and dance.  All the occupants of the house are welcome to join into this communal gathering expressing jubilation at the gifts of life.

August doesn’t employ the typical three act play, but his choice works well for a character driven play with provocative dialogue.  He travails the challenges of presenting a period piece with an abundant story deftly and succinctly.  His six Tony awards are the proof in the pudding in heralding the success of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” which has been celebrated as his most critically acclaimed play.

Works Cited

Wilson, August. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. New York: Plume,1988.

Blumenthal, Anna S. “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone:  Sacrificial Rites and the Rebirth of the Self.’:  Morehouse University  53-65. Web.  http://www2.unca.edu/postscript/postscript15/ps15.6.pdf.

Boles, David W. “August Wilson Plays the Blues: United Stage, Poetics in Live Performance 6.2 (2010): Web. 09 January 2010.  http://unitedstage.com/2010/01/09/august-wilson-plays-the-blues.html

Hay, Samuel A. “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” The Cambridge Companion to August Wilson. Ed. Christopher Bigsby. Cambridge University Press, 2007. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press. 02 April 2010 DOI:10.1017/CCOL0521866065.006.