Something I Said-August Wilson's Gem Of The Ocean -- A Yawn-Inducing Bore

[play piano] [play piano] Something I Said August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean Dwight Hobbes Insight News archives When August Wilson's plays are good (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II) they are very good. When they are not (Jitney, Seven Guitars, The Piano Lesson), they're a ponderous bore. Gem of the Ocean, running in its area premiere at The Guthrie Theater is an insufferable example of the latter. Not even OBIE Award winning Penumbra Theatre artistic director Lou Bellamy, one of the best at directing Wilson's work, can salvage this talky script that goes nowhere and takes a good three hours and change getting there. It is 1904 and Citizen Barlow, in the wave of Northward migrating ex-slaves, shows up at the Pittsburgh home of Aunt Ester, a wily, goodhearted old lady of whom everyone in the neighborhood is incurably fond. That's the whole story. Character after character basks in her wizened glow and then goes on about their business, so the next character can come and bask in her wizened glow. Without a single thing happening. Nobody has anything terribly important at stake, nobody changes and absolutely nobody does anything except have one conversation after another. The audience is supposed to be held spellbound when, at the end of the first half of the play, there comes word of a fire in town. Returning after intermission, you find that you may as well have gone home, because the fire and accompanying riot over someone unjustly accused of a petty crime amounts to a false alarm. It brings no compelling consequence to these people's lives and just gives them one more thing to talk about. By the time they are all talked out and the curtain mercifully comes down, putting you out of your misery, Wilson has given new, improved meaning to the lament, "I could've had a V-8." Which really is a shame, because with one glaring exception, this production boasts a a top-notch cast. Who knows why Penumbra regular Greta Oglesby wasn't called on to play the role of Aunt Esther, but it's conspicuous that she did the Goodman Theater premiere yet doesn't reprise it here. That said, Marvette Knight finally is rescued from a series of lack luster assignments at Children's Theatre Company to take on the huge challenge of bringing Aunt Esther to life and, despite the pointless dialogue, is brilliant. Similarly, T. Mychael Rambo is wonderful as Caesar, a cop with a ready smile and an even readier proclivity to go upside somebody's head if it even might be called for. Austene Van, as the fetching Black Mary is effective, basically doing what she did in Seven Guitars at Penumbra as the fetching Ruby - sashay quite saucily about, giving any red-blooded man within her aura very pleasant ideas. It's hard to figure out what Abdul Salaam El Razzac is doing in this cast aside from adding his star rep. Pretty much anyone with reasonably impressive stage presence could've played the role. In their sleep. However, in the interest of not looking a gift horse in the mouth, one is grateful to see this gifted actor do anything on stage. And, once he gets past the director's hurried, initial pace and settles into the character Eli, Aunt Esther's adoring friend and stalwart protector, it's a joy to watch him work. James Craven works well as the lively cut-up Solly, Aunt Esther's buddy and occasional suitor. Terry Hempleman does a fine job, practically channeling Raynor Scheine as skinflint door-to-door salesman Rutherford Selig. Where and why Bellamy found the no-acting Cedric Mays to play Citizen Barlow is a confounding mystery. He'll put you to sleep faster than knockout drops. The most significant thing about Gem of the Ocean is that it's the next to last play Wilson completed before his death. That, however, is not reason enough to sit through this exercise in extended tedium.

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Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader's Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary column Something I Said). He's spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, Blog Talk Radio's UNOBSTRUCTED and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column "Hobbes In The House" in MN Spokesman Recorder speaks to domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter - produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues - produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre's 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can't Always Sometimes Never Tell - produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst - produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel "Farewell To August Wilson" at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ). Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single "Atlanta Children" (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny's Castaways and My Fathers Place. He fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony's Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille's Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. www.myspace.com/dwighthobbesmusic

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