Prometheus 6   

Queen of the Hill
August Wilson's potent but ungainly 'Gem of the Ocean' opens at the Taper.
By Don Shirley
Times Staff Writer

August 1 2003

A city of bones lies at the bottom of the Atlantic — the remains of the slaves who died while crossing over from Africa.

August Wilson first used this image in his 1986 play "Joe Turner's Come and Gone." In a 1993 interview, he called "Joe Turner" his favorite among his plays and said, "The bones rising out of the ocean — when I wrote that I thought, 'OK, that's it, if I die tomorrow I'll be satisfied and fulfilled as an artist that I wrote that scene.' "

Over the last decade, however, Wilson's satisfaction may have diminished somewhat. For in his new "Gem of the Ocean," at the Mark Taper Forum, he revives and more fully develops the image of the city of bones — not as a grim graveyard but as a quasi-heavenly place where African American souls can be washed clean.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 8/1/2003 08:15:34 AM |