'Jitney' a colorful, touching drama

Play proves that there is more to Hollywood than just blockbuster movies

By Meghan Newell
Staff Writer

So this is L.A., right? Everyone reading this can immediately say which movies recently came out and which were recently nominated for a Grammy - er, an Oscar. But can anyone name a recent theater piece that has created a sensation? I don't mean that musical that you just saw with your parents or the one that your girlfriend dragged you to. I mean theater - real, vital theater, done the way it should be.

Just up the road from USC, at the Mark Taper Forum, there is a play going on that you owe it to yourself to see: August Wilson's "Jitney." Consider it an education, only without the lecture.

August Wilson is one of America's foremost contemporary playwrights, known for a cycle of plays documenting the African-American experience. "Jitney" is set in 1977, complete with the kind of clothing seen on shows like Sanford and Son and later on the thrift-store-attired Kurt Cobain. It has a musical score of jazz and '70s rhythm and blues. The set is fabulous, complete with a chipped checkerboard tile floor and a number of late-'60s Chevys visible through the windows of the Jitney distribution store front.

It is soon revealed that this car distribution company that is the men's livelihood will soon be closed by the city. Meanwhile, the first of two painfully unraveling relationships is developed amid the characters. Youngblood (Russel Hornsby), the youngest of the workers and a recently returned Vietnam vet, is trying to buy a house for his wife and young daughter. However, he has been seen driving around with his wife's sister by the group gossip, who "can't keep his mouth closed when something needs to be said" and happens to think that Youngblood is no good, like most of the young men around nowadays. Also revealed is the fact hat the son of the kind and just Jitney owner, Becker, is going to be released from prison after being convicted of killing a white girl 20 years earlier.

The opening scene sets the stage for Wilson's intense drama even in the first few moments. "Jitney" opens with two characters playing checkers. They are soon joined by several other older black men whose voices come together to form an amazing rhythmic pattern as their bodies cross in and out of the distribution room, pausing briefly to answer the phone for another assignment or drink some coffee on the couch. The chaos in the workplace is only to be outdone by the chaos of unemployment.

August Wilson masterfully draws powerful situation upon powerful situation to the point of absolute crisis. Each of the characters is honestly trying to do the best they can to live the way they think they should, and each keeps managing to only hurt the ones they love in the process.

The actors do an amazing job filling in the rich lives behind the words they speak. Each character has a distinct physicality, most notably the man given to drinking, Feilding (Anthony Chisolm), who has a slight cat-like step that is utterly appropriate.

The director, Marion McClinton, also does a fine job, making use of the street outside to stage moments between the characters that add greatly to the events happening downstage. He paints heart-wrenchingly beautiful pictures with the bodies on stage, all heads looking in opposite directions, giving the impression that something is wrong, that something has changed, but not yet giving the audience all the information that they need to finish the puzzle.

Yes, Los Angeles is a film town, and much of the theater that goes on here is mere showcasing for actors who only hope they will be discovered so they can begin to finally afford their rent, but occasionally one finds a gem. The Mark Taper Forum is famous for continuously producing those gems, and "Jitney" is a shining example. Next weekend, when you are looking through the paper to see which Hollywood blockbuster to take your date to, consider going to "Jitney" instead and impress people with your cultured self.

Jitney is playing at The Mark Taper Forum through March 3. Tickets are $29 to $42, with public rush of $12 available two hours prior to curtain most days. Call (213) 628-2772 for tickets.

Copyright 2000 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 139, No. 28 (Wednesday, February 23, 2000), beginning on page 10 and ending on page 11.