August Wilson, described as the theater’s Poet of Black America, is the playwright that Goodman Theatre brings to the stage in his first installment of a ten-play catalog known as The Pittsburgh Cycle explored 100 years of the African American experience; Gem of the Ocean. Most of August Wilson’s plays were set in the Pittsburgh Hill District, with only Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 1927, Chicago.  

Gem of the Ocean is set in 1904, where Aunt Ester, a character seen throughout many of Wilson’s plays, claiming to be 285-year-old, is the matriarch. She owns a dwelling in the Pittsburgh Hill District at 1839 Wylie Avenue, allowing wayward people seeking peace and a clean soul to stay. We met Eli, Aunt Ester’s caretaker of the house, and Solly, Two Kings, a formerly enslaved person, and Eli’s comrade, who were Underground Railroad helpers for the Union Army. Solly has an unusual business of collecting Dog waste, which he called “Pure,” used for leather cleaning. Black Mary, Ester’s housekeeper, who she is painstakingly preparing as her Soul cleansing protege, is Caesar Wilks’s sister. Caesar is a baker, landlord, and oppressive negro policeman who believes it’s his civic duty to keep all the Negro’s in line. The last frequenter in Aunt Ester’s home is Rutherford Selig, a peddler that sells rocks, pots, pans, and anything he can get his hands on to sell.

The people know aunt Ester as a healer, so when a young man named Citizen Barlow does something that vexes his soul, he comes to her abode seeking a cleansing. Eli tells him to come back on Tuesday, but Citizen needs help now, so he sneaks in through a window and learns from Aunt Ester about a journey he must take on a legendary slave boat, Gem of the Ocean, to see the mythological City of Bones.  

The Gem of The Ocean tells the story of Blacks’ plight endured by white hands that caused riots across Pittsburgh’s Hill District. As one man refuses to confess to a crime of stealing a bucket of nails he didn’t commit, he jumps into the river and drowns. His refusal to take the blame, and a city already in chaos is drastically changed by the decision of two men in Aunt Ester’s home. 

Directed by the legendary, accomplished, and one of most influential directors in Chicago’s history, Chuck Smith, August Wilson’s Gem of The Ocean where we journey to the City of Bones, a spiritual grave within the ocean built from the bones of Africans who died aboard slave ships. Wilson, a fantastic storyteller, is like the Moses of history who uses his words to burn into our soul the horrific stain of America’s past that should never be forgiven. Smith pulled in several vets to the stage and Goodman Theatre with the cast of Lisa Gaye Dixon, Sydney Charles, Gary Houston, and Let’s Play, actor of the year for 2021, Kelvin Roston, Jr. 

In his debut at Goodman, Sharif Atkins, an accomplished theater and television resume, started as the soul-cleansing rascal of a man, Citizen Barlow. A.C. Smith is returning to his role as Eli, which he played at Court Theater. In addition, Smith and James A Williams, who brilliantly plays Solly, Two Kings, have performed in several August Wilson plays. 

Millions have seen August Wilson’s ten-play catalog known as The Pittsburgh Cycle, but for you first-timers, a spoiler alert below about the ending of the Gem of the Ocean. 

The play ends with Caesar accusing Solly of arson and eventually killing Solly, Two Kings. At the same time, Citizen carries on Solly’s journey taking his coat, hat, and walking cane to continue helping others to the (deceptive) promise of freedom. 

Goodman’s Gem of the Ocean starts slowly to the point where many seem indifferent and incurious; however, the ending scene sparked their curiosity before intermission. The pace increases in the second half of this three-hour and fifteen-minute play, highlighted by an astounding City of Bones performance. Goodman imaging featuring the faces of enslaved people who drowned floating from the walls was magnificent.

Regardless of how you feel about the pace of the play, the audience shouldn’t miss the timely message of August Wilson Gem of The Ocean. America needs to understand and accept what its ancestors’ did and face the truth about the crime of slavery and the wrong it played that still plagues African-Americans today.  

Let’s Play recommends Gem of The Ocean at the Goodman Theater.  

Goodman Theatre

Gem of the Ocean

By August Wilson

Directed by Chuck Smith

January 22nd – February 27th