November 5, 6, 11,12, 13,14,18,19, 20 at 8:00 p.m.
Admission $20.00 Curtain Time 8:00 p.m. Curtain Time 2:00 p.m.
Players by the Sea is proud to present Gem of the Ocean, a powerful drama laced with mischievous humor written by August Wilson, considered to be one of the most important American playwrights of his generation.
Join us on Thursday nights, November 11 & 19th when our sponsor JENKINS QUALITY BARBECUE will be serving up their famously delicious goodies before the show. (Arrive early!)
It is 1904, Pittsburgh. At 1839 Wylie Street in the Hill District is the home of Aunt Ester, a 285-year-old former slave, who is a keeper of tradition and history for her people and a renowned cleanser of souls.
An incident at the local mill has ignited the African-American community. A black man was wrongfully accused of stealing a bucket of nails. Rather than confessing to a crime he didn’t commit, he jumped into the river and drowned. This has made him a martyr to his co-workers, who have gone on strike and are rioting. Caesar, the local law enforcement official, has arrested many of his own people and shot one.
Against this turbulent backdrop, Aunt Ester guides Citizen Barlow on a spiritual journey aboard the slave ship Gem of the Ocean to the mythical City of Bones. There, Citizen comes to understand the story of his ancestors and faces the truth about his crime and the man he wronged.
Described as, “a swelling battle hymn of transporting beauty,” by Ben Brantley of the New York Times, Gem of the Ocean is set in 1904 in the HIll district of Pittsburgh. It centers around the home of Aunt Ester, the 285 year old wise matriarch, whose healing powers are legendary. When Citizen Barlow arrives at Aunt Ester’s house seeking to get his soul washed Aunt Ester takes him on a spiritual journey to the mythical City of Bones. There Citizen finds redemption as he comes to understand the story of his ancestors.
With the completion of his extraordinarily ambitious ten-play cycle, August Wilson secured his place as one of the most important American playwrights of his generation. Critic John Lahr of the New Yorker cited, “No one except perhaps Eugene O’Neil and Tennessee Williams has aimed so high and achieved so much in the American theater.”
Fences, Wilson’s second Broadway play, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and also set a new Broadway record for the highest-grossing non-musical, bringing in $11 million in its first year, 1987. When Wilson died October 2, 2005 after a bout with liver cancer it was the first time a Broadway theater has been named for an African-American.
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