Seven Guitars by August Wilson ,
directed by Manny Buckley
City Lit Theater,
Chicago,IL
Nov.16,2024
by Maja Rios
Seven Guitars, a play by August Wilson, was outstanding. It was one of the most memorable plays i have seen. All the cast members were great. The second-floor theater in Edgewater Church, was a very intimate setting for play.
The play centers around a Pittsburgh blues guitarist who wants to travel to Chicago to make a hit record, that his manager has promised him and ultimately betrays. He is a dreamer, womanizer, hustler and focal point of the play. The other supporting characters are friends and foes, both women and men, who are doubting of his ability to be successful. The character of Vera (Maureena Azzun) is the main female who agrees to be with him and support him. My favorite character is the Jamaican- American, Hedley, (Robert Howard) who is the most volatile, preachy, person quoting from the bible in his rich patois, and most outspoken of, the Black man in Americas’ status, past enslavement, and thus frequently proclaiming ” the Black man is the King” The Ethiopian King.”
Other supporting characters are three other women and two other men all who give advice to each other and comment on the blues guitarist’s hopes for a better life as they sing,dance,argue etc,,and offer advice, both good and bad.
Seven Guitars is probably the most in depth slice of Black American life I have ever seen depicted in a play. Food,Music,Religion,Politics and History of Black American Culture is displayed through slang, dialogue and word play. Details of Black life, such as Bid Whist,Greens,,Buddy Bolden, Sweet Potato Pie, Plantation, are frequently mentioned by the characters, that are all mainstays and still are today, of Black Culture, even though play is set in 1940s Pittsburgh, complete with great costumes from that era.
Although the play centers on Black life, it is at the same time the total experience of the human condition, of jealousy,despair,hope,belief,anger, death, marriage typical August Wilson style. All the actors were wonderful. I highly recommend this play. One of the best plays and acting I have ever seen.
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