Word: boys
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...play is set in post-Depression Pittsburgh. When gentle Doaker Charles's (Carl Gordon) nephew Boy Willie (Charles S. Dutton) comes to visit, the youngster wreaks havoc on the calm home Doaker shares with his widowed niece Berneice (Starletta Dupois) and Berneice's daughter Maretha (Jaye Skinner). Dupois plays Berneice with unswerving, impressive ferocity despite the fact that Wilson tends to give all of the best moments to Boy Willie...
DUTTON'S ENTRANCE at the beginning of Act 1 is vigorous and spectacular, and his energy never flags. Boy Willie and Berneice soon embark on a bitter struggle over a family heirloom, an ornately carved piano that dominates the sitting room of Doaker's simple house. The piano was carved by their great-grandfather and was traded for their great-grandmother during slavery days...
From the very first, Boy Wille keeps at Berneice. He wants to sell "his half" of the piano to buy some land, since "land's the only thing God ain't making more of." But Berneice wants to cling to her family heritage and never to forget the struggles that came along with the piano. As brother and sister struggle over the piano, Wilson brings out the conflict between wanting to remember old grudges and assimilating with whites, who are "hard to figure out sometimes...
Dutton is a sharp contrast not only to Berneice's steadiness but also to the quietness of Carl Gordon's performance as Doaker. The character that makes the best foil for Boy Wille's out-there exuberance is his handsome friend Lymon, played with a funny mix of innocence and debonair grace by Rocky Carroll...
...Republican nomination has been to suggest--apparently without merit--a conflict of interest associated with the handling of Elizabeth Dole's blind trust and to call for the Kansas senator to release income taxes for the past 10 years. Perhaps Dole is no longer the poor Dust Bowl boy he once was, but we'd like to know whether the vice president supported the arms-for-hostages swap just the same...