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The Century Cycle #8
Jitney
Urban renewal threatens the dingy office of Becker’s gypsy cab company, just as his estranged son returns.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published November 12, 2001
26 people are currently reading
1133 people want to read
About the author
August Wilson
66 books569 followersAmerican playwright August Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize for
Fences
in 1985 and for
The Piano Lesson
in 1987.
His literary legacy embraces the ten series and received twice for drama for The Pittsburgh Cycle . Each depicted the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience, set in different decade of the 20th century.
Daisy Wilson, an African American cleaning woman from North Carolina, in the hill district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bore Frederick August Kittel, Junior, the fourth of six children, to Frederick August Kittel, Senior, a German immigrant baker. From North Carolina, maternal grandmother of Wilson earlier sought a better life and walked to Pennsylvania. After his fifth year, his mother raised the children alone in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue.
After death of Frederick August Kittel, Senior, in 1965, his son changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother.
In 1968, Wilson co-founded the black horizon theater in the hill district of Pittsburgh alongside Rob Penny, his friend. People first performed his Recycling for audiences in small theaters and public housing community centers. Among these early efforts, he revised Jitney more than two decades later as part of his ten-cycle on 20th-century Pittsburgh.
Wilson married three times. His first marriage to Brenda Burton lasted from 1969 to 1972. She bore him Sakina Ansari, a daughter, in 1970.
Vernell Lillie founded of the Kuntu repertory theatre at the University of Pittsburgh in 1974 and, two years later, directed The Homecoming of Wilson in 1976.
Wilson also co-founded the workshop of Kuntu to bring African-Americans together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations still act.
Claude Purdy, friend and director, suggested to Wilson to move to Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1978 and helped him secure a job with educational scripts for the science museum. In 1980, he received a fellowship for the center in Minneapolis. Wilson long associated with the penumbra theatre company, which gave the premieres, of Saint Paul.
In 1981, he married to Judy Oliver, a social worker, and they divorced in 1990.
Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of humanities from the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as a member of the board of trustees from 1992 until 1995.
Wilson got a best known Tony award and the New York circle of drama critics; he authored Ma Rainey's Black Bottom , and Joe Turner's Come and Gone .
In 1994, Wilson left Saint Paul and developed a relationship with Seattle repertory theatre. Ultimately, only Seattle repertory theater in the country produced all works in his ten-cycle and his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned .
Constanza Romero, his costume designer and third wife from 1994, bore Azula Carmen, his second daughter.
In 2005, August Wilson received the Anisfield-Wolf lifetime achievement award.
Wilson reported diagnosis with liver cancer in June 2005 with three to five months to live. He passed away at Swedish medical center in Seattle, and people interred his body at Greenwood cemetery, Pittsburgh on 8 October 2005.
His literary legacy embraces the ten series and received twice for drama for The Pittsburgh Cycle . Each depicted the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience, set in different decade of the 20th century.
Daisy Wilson, an African American cleaning woman from North Carolina, in the hill district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bore Frederick August Kittel, Junior, the fourth of six children, to Frederick August Kittel, Senior, a German immigrant baker. From North Carolina, maternal grandmother of Wilson earlier sought a better life and walked to Pennsylvania. After his fifth year, his mother raised the children alone in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue.
After death of Frederick August Kittel, Senior, in 1965, his son changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother.
In 1968, Wilson co-founded the black horizon theater in the hill district of Pittsburgh alongside Rob Penny, his friend. People first performed his Recycling for audiences in small theaters and public housing community centers. Among these early efforts, he revised Jitney more than two decades later as part of his ten-cycle on 20th-century Pittsburgh.
Wilson married three times. His first marriage to Brenda Burton lasted from 1969 to 1972. She bore him Sakina Ansari, a daughter, in 1970.
Vernell Lillie founded of the Kuntu repertory theatre at the University of Pittsburgh in 1974 and, two years later, directed The Homecoming of Wilson in 1976.
Wilson also co-founded the workshop of Kuntu to bring African-Americans together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations still act.
Claude Purdy, friend and director, suggested to Wilson to move to Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1978 and helped him secure a job with educational scripts for the science museum. In 1980, he received a fellowship for the center in Minneapolis. Wilson long associated with the penumbra theatre company, which gave the premieres, of Saint Paul.
In 1981, he married to Judy Oliver, a social worker, and they divorced in 1990.
Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary doctor of humanities from the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as a member of the board of trustees from 1992 until 1995.
Wilson got a best known Tony award and the New York circle of drama critics; he authored Ma Rainey's Black Bottom , and Joe Turner's Come and Gone .
In 1994, Wilson left Saint Paul and developed a relationship with Seattle repertory theatre. Ultimately, only Seattle repertory theater in the country produced all works in his ten-cycle and his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned .
Constanza Romero, his costume designer and third wife from 1994, bore Azula Carmen, his second daughter.
In 2005, August Wilson received the Anisfield-Wolf lifetime achievement award.
Wilson reported diagnosis with liver cancer in June 2005 with three to five months to live. He passed away at Swedish medical center in Seattle, and people interred his body at Greenwood cemetery, Pittsburgh on 8 October 2005.
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August 30, 2023
"Jitney" is part of Wilson's "Century Cycle," a group of ten plays about the African-American experience, with each play defining a decade of the 20th Century. He wrote "Jitney" in 1979, and it was performed in 1982. It was revised later into a longer work.
Set in the 1970s, the play is staged in a jitney station with a pay phone in Pittsburgh's Hill District. A jitney station is a gypsy cab company where people call in to request a ride before the days of Uber. Other phone calls come from family members or to place bets on the numbers.
Becker, the owner of the jitney business, has been told that the building will be boarded up for urban renewal. There will be a loss of black businesses, homes, and jobs so everyone is nervous about the future. There are also problems confronting returning military veterans and released prisoners. Misunderstandings and relationship problems also occur. "Jitney" is a well-written play with lots of food for thought.
Set in the 1970s, the play is staged in a jitney station with a pay phone in Pittsburgh's Hill District. A jitney station is a gypsy cab company where people call in to request a ride before the days of Uber. Other phone calls come from family members or to place bets on the numbers.
Becker, the owner of the jitney business, has been told that the building will be boarded up for urban renewal. There will be a loss of black businesses, homes, and jobs so everyone is nervous about the future. There are also problems confronting returning military veterans and released prisoners. Misunderstandings and relationship problems also occur. "Jitney" is a well-written play with lots of food for thought.
March 23, 2019
Jitney, first composed in 1979, was the first of August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” to be written and the last to reach Broadway (in 2017). Although extensively revised in 1996, it still seems like an early play: sunnier, with a “slice-of-life” realist feel, lacking the dark music and expressionistic touches that one comes to expect from August Wilson. Still, as is always true in a Wilson play, the language is vivid, and the portrait of the black neighborhoods of Pittsburgh is both palpable and believable.
The story—what there is of it—centers around an unofficial cab stand located in Pittsburgh’s inner city, where the drivers of “jitneys” (unlicensed taxicabs) gather to receive their assignments from Becker their respected manager. The regular drivers range from steady old Korean war vet Doub to alcoholic former “tailor-to-the stars” Fielding and the irascible, always up-in-your-business Turnbo, whom nobody seems to like. The main story involves the relationship between Vietnam vet Darnell and Rena, the mother of his little son Jesse, who love each other but have not yet learned to trust. And there other unsettling matters at the jitney station too: Becker’s son has just been released from prison, and there are rumors that the Pittsburgh Housing Authority is planning to tear the old jitney stand down.
For a taste of Wilson’s wonderful language, I give you the voice of Rena, who has just learned Darnell has been planning to “surprise” her with a house, and who is not nearly as happy with the idea as Darnell expects her to be. (I love this passage, because I’m convinced most women—including my wife—would feel much the same way):
You gonna surprise me with a house? Don’t do that. A new TV maybe. A stereo . . . a couch . . . a refrigerator . . . okay. But don’t surprise me with a house that I didn’t even have the chance to pick out!
. . . You can’t surprise me with a house and I’m supposed to say, “Oh Darnell, that’s nice.” at one time I would have. But I’m not seventeen no more. I have responsibilities. I want to kow if it has a hookup for a washer and dryer ‘cause I got to wash Jesse’s clothes. I want to know if it has a yard and do it have a fence and how far Jesse has to go to school. I ain’t thinking about where to put the TV. That’s not what's important to me. And you supposed to know, Darnell. You supposed to know what’s important to me like I’m supposed to know what’s important to you. I’m not asking you to do it by yourself. I’m here with you. We in this together.
January 6, 2024
The first written of August Wilson’s majestical Century Cycle of plays, Jitney is the eighth play chronologically. It’s set in a gypsy cab station in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood in 1977. Jitney feels remarkably similar to the seventh play in the cycle, Two Trains Running, in several ways. Both are muted, slice of life workplace dramas. Imminent destruction of the place of business is a major plot line of each. Both feature number runners characters who use these businesses as their base. Jitney even does a call back to Two Trains Running, mentioning how the city took Memphis Lee’s diner just as it’s coming after the gypsy cab stand. The two feel like sister plays.
As in all of Wilson’s plays, the dialogue is brilliant, perfectly framing the play’s conflicts and traumas. The three way conflict between the youngest driver, Youngblood, his lady, Rena, and the older, meddling driver Turnbo, who inserts himself, stirring the pot in their relationship, fills out much of the play’s action. But the most tragically poignant conflict is between Becker, the cab stand manager, and his adult son, just released from prison after twenty years. As their conversation breaks down into angry remonstrations of their grievances, it is clear that the trauma of a systematically unfair system is the root cause of the conflict — that both father and son are victims of its relentlessness.
Though first of the Century Cycle to be written, Jitney was the last to make it to Broadway, making its Broadway debut only after Wilson’s death. This isn’t a reflection on its quality, however. It’s a small gem of a play that deserves your attention.
As in all of Wilson’s plays, the dialogue is brilliant, perfectly framing the play’s conflicts and traumas. The three way conflict between the youngest driver, Youngblood, his lady, Rena, and the older, meddling driver Turnbo, who inserts himself, stirring the pot in their relationship, fills out much of the play’s action. But the most tragically poignant conflict is between Becker, the cab stand manager, and his adult son, just released from prison after twenty years. As their conversation breaks down into angry remonstrations of their grievances, it is clear that the trauma of a systematically unfair system is the root cause of the conflict — that both father and son are victims of its relentlessness.
Though first of the Century Cycle to be written, Jitney was the last to make it to Broadway, making its Broadway debut only after Wilson’s death. This isn’t a reflection on its quality, however. It’s a small gem of a play that deserves your attention.
August 26, 2022
I’d love to see this show on the stage. These characters are so fantastic. It’s perfectly paced. The play revelations are so good. It’s a simple play with great payoff.
February 13, 2013
August Wilson was a special treasure for the City of Pittsburgh. His crowning gem was probable "The Pittsburgh Cycle," a series of 10 plays, each set in a different decade, revealing life for African Americans in the City of Pittsburgh. Jitney is the story of Pittsburgh in the 1970's. Set in Pittsburgh's Hill District, during a period of Urban Renewal,
Jitney service in Pittsburgh was very much a part of everyday life. It also provided a microcosm for August Wilson to explore personalities and struggles faced by these drivers. Struggles against challenges with government, personal relationships and even with themselves are all here.
The characters are real and the frustrations and aspirations are accurately drawn. August Wilson always breathes true life into his characters. The men drawn here are people we have all met trying to improve themselves, trying to help their families and merely trying to survive.
You care about these people and their struggles and ache for their pain in being unable to fight the juggernaut of the government and the oppression of society with its expectations. August Wilson is always a good read.
Jitney service in Pittsburgh was very much a part of everyday life. It also provided a microcosm for August Wilson to explore personalities and struggles faced by these drivers. Struggles against challenges with government, personal relationships and even with themselves are all here.
The characters are real and the frustrations and aspirations are accurately drawn. August Wilson always breathes true life into his characters. The men drawn here are people we have all met trying to improve themselves, trying to help their families and merely trying to survive.
You care about these people and their struggles and ache for their pain in being unable to fight the juggernaut of the government and the oppression of society with its expectations. August Wilson is always a good read.
August 5, 2017
Jitney is play #8 in August Wilson's Century Cycle. Jitney tells the story of a group of men who run a cab service. Wilson focuses on their livelihood, their dreams, and their imperfections. I enjoyed the cast of characters as well as the monologues from a few of them. Although very minor I did like reading the references to characters in earlier plays. However, I felt the ending was a little lacking. Fences is still the best of the plays so far. Two more to go.
May 15, 2013
This is not my first foray into Wilson, but it is the start of a concerted effort to finish the Century Cycle. I'm tackling them in the order they were written. I wondered if this was the best way to go, but now I can't imagine starting anywhere but with Jitney.
Like many plays, the physical universe of Jitney is tiny. It is confined to a single gypsy cab office, connected to the outside world through the characters' histories, calls from customers, and the appearance of Becker's son, Booster, home from 20 years in prison. The limitation of place heightens the crisis at hand--the city's plans to raze the building in their neighborhood. Their lives, as well as their jobs, are rooted in that office. Wilson thereby raises the stakes on what his characters will lose (more than their jobs), and it drives home the importance of their decision not to leave.
It is a tense play almost throughout, quieting in tone for the conclusion--an interesting and unique choice for a play (the action usually goes the other way). From the beginning, Wilson sets his conflicts to a broiling point, rooted in character development that seems improbable in the slim volume, but which Wilson manages adroitly. The main conflicts are between older, meddling Turnbo and Youngblood (a dreamer on the cusp of anchoring himself in adulthood), both veterans (Korea and Vietnam respectively); Fielding, an aged alcoholic and Becker; and between Becker and his son, Booster, in whom he had placed all his dreams of a better life. Wilson excels at anchoring his play with intense personal relationships, while exploring race and racism (overt and institutional), class, identity, while creating a rich tapestry of Pittsburgh in the 1970s--all without leaving the room.
It is not a perfect play. Sometimes the characters--particularly Becker and Booster--have to come too quickly to the climax of their argument, or have to bring home overarching concerns that don't yet feel quite natural. But it still is brilliant and honest. And the ending is, without a doubt, perfect. I am referring specifically to the last line in particular. The line reminds me of William Carlos Williams, "so much depends . . ." It is quiet and simple and powerful. It speaks volumes. It makes whole the play; it develops Booster; it shows us a future. It is a subtle reclamation of power. It is the taking of a stand, and in a single sentence we know what that stand will be, and why, and why it is important. Lacking Wilson's ability, I can't sum up why it works so perfectly, but it does. It demonstrates Wilson's mastery of his craft, and it gives us a glimpse of where he and his Century Cycle are headed.
Like many plays, the physical universe of Jitney is tiny. It is confined to a single gypsy cab office, connected to the outside world through the characters' histories, calls from customers, and the appearance of Becker's son, Booster, home from 20 years in prison. The limitation of place heightens the crisis at hand--the city's plans to raze the building in their neighborhood. Their lives, as well as their jobs, are rooted in that office. Wilson thereby raises the stakes on what his characters will lose (more than their jobs), and it drives home the importance of their decision not to leave.
It is a tense play almost throughout, quieting in tone for the conclusion--an interesting and unique choice for a play (the action usually goes the other way). From the beginning, Wilson sets his conflicts to a broiling point, rooted in character development that seems improbable in the slim volume, but which Wilson manages adroitly. The main conflicts are between older, meddling Turnbo and Youngblood (a dreamer on the cusp of anchoring himself in adulthood), both veterans (Korea and Vietnam respectively); Fielding, an aged alcoholic and Becker; and between Becker and his son, Booster, in whom he had placed all his dreams of a better life. Wilson excels at anchoring his play with intense personal relationships, while exploring race and racism (overt and institutional), class, identity, while creating a rich tapestry of Pittsburgh in the 1970s--all without leaving the room.
It is not a perfect play. Sometimes the characters--particularly Becker and Booster--have to come too quickly to the climax of their argument, or have to bring home overarching concerns that don't yet feel quite natural. But it still is brilliant and honest. And the ending is, without a doubt, perfect. I am referring specifically to the last line in particular. The line reminds me of William Carlos Williams, "so much depends . . ." It is quiet and simple and powerful. It speaks volumes. It makes whole the play; it develops Booster; it shows us a future. It is a subtle reclamation of power. It is the taking of a stand, and in a single sentence we know what that stand will be, and why, and why it is important. Lacking Wilson's ability, I can't sum up why it works so perfectly, but it does. It demonstrates Wilson's mastery of his craft, and it gives us a glimpse of where he and his Century Cycle are headed.
June 10, 2019
A great play set around taxi drivers and their lives.
October 29, 2016
Penumbra Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, is celebrating its 40th Anniversary! The theater's founders imagined a theater for, by, and about the black community. It is only fitting that as part of its anniversary celebration, that they have chosen to produce August Wilson's, "Jitney," as Penumbra has a storied history with playwright, August Wilson. For instance, "Jitney" was first produced as a one-act at Penumbra in 1984 and has been produced twice since at Penumbra.
Penumbra's "Bookends" program offers theatre patrons a pre and post discussion of each of its productions. I was fortunate to get tickets for these discussions, but was not able to see the production itself, so I decided to read it. As a theatre major and teacher, I understand that reading a play is an entirely different experience than attending a performance of said play. Sans "spectacle" and "melody," one has the opportunity to look entirely at plot, character, and theme. I'm not a fan of drama strictly as "literature." A "Pioneer Press" reviewer referred to the "cacophony of voices" in Penumbra's current production. That wasn't my experience in reading the script.
"Jitney" refers to the nickel it cost in the early 20th century to take an unlicensed cab, generally centered in communities taxis didn't serve. Eventually, "jitney" referred to the cab itself. As Marion Isaac McClinton says in the introduction to the play, "When he was driving jitneys..., he wasn't just making money to take care of himself, he was also doing something to help take care of his community. He was...'providing a service.'" Set in 1977 Pittsburg, "Jitney" takes place in a jitney storefront where a group of jitney drivers, and the people in their lives, congregate. We learn that developers are going to level the block from which the jitney dispatches cabs, threatening the livelihoods and dreams of the drivers and those in their lives.
As a reader, what was more compelling to me were the themes implicit in the story. Questions I would like to ask at the final Bookend gathering will center around these themes. With the goal of a theatre that is for, by, and about the black community, which themes are particular to that community and which are more universal in nature? In terms of windows and mirrors, then, what does the black community see reflected about itself? What do those from other communities learn both about the black community and about themselves by looking through this window? Which ideas are a function of race, and which are functions of class? Given that the play is set in 1977, are the thematic ideas still relevant today? What has changed and what has not?
Some thematic ideas that I found interesting include:
- I am curious about the use of the word "slave" and "nigger" by the characters towards one another.
- p. 29 - "'What sense does it make for that McNeil boy to steal his grandmama's television? What sense it make for Shealy's nephew to break in Taylor's bar? What sense it make for that boy to run with his girlfriend's sister? Half these niggers around here running on empty and that boy at the top of the list.'"
- p. 30 - "'It ain't easy these days to raise a child. I don't know what's in these young boys' heads. Seem like they don't respect nobody. They don't even respect themselves. When I was coming along that was the first thing you learned. If you don't respect yourself...quite naturally you couldn't respect nobody else. When I was coming along the more respect you had for other people...the more people respected you. Seem like it come back to you double.'"
- p.31 - "'I just try to live and let live.'"
- p. 32 - "'Man, these white folks is slick. They think of all kind of ways to get your money.'"
- p. 36 - "'I'm just tired...Can't hardly explain it none. You look up one day and all you got left is what you ain't spent. Everyday cost you something and you don't all the time realize it.'"
- p. 38 - "'They won't be satisfied until they tear the whole goddam neighborhood down.'"
- p. 52 - "'You got to have somebody you can count on you know."
- p. 55 - "'You ain't got nothing now. You got less than the day you was born. Then you had some dignity. Some innocence...You ain't got nothing now. You took and threw it all away.'"
- p. 55 - "'What I ain't got is a son that did me honor...The Bible say "Honor thy father and thy mother." I ain't got that. I ain't got a son I can be proud of. That's what I ain't got. A son to come up behind me...living a good honest decent life. I got a son people point to and say, "That's Becker's boy. That's the one that killed that gal. That's Becker's boy The one they gave the electric chair. That's Becker's boy.'"
- p. 56 - "'I taught you two wrongs don't make a right.'"
- p. 56 - "'I don't know if you knew it Pop, but you were a big man. Everywhere you went people treated you like a big man...I would just look at you and wonder how you could be that big. I wanted to be like that. I would go to school and try to make myself feel big. But I never could. I told myself that's okay...when I got grown I'm gonna be big like that...I told myself if I ever got big I wouldn't let nothing make me small.'"
- p. 62 - "'It's them pretty women...get a man killed.'"
- p. 63 - "'The first thing a man do when he get a woman he don't want nobody else to have her. He say this is mine. i'm gonna hold on to this. I'm gonna go over and see Betty Jean but I'm gonna hold on to this. If I catch anybody sneaking around her sniffing...I'm gonna bust his nose and break both of his legs...He say that then he go on over to Betty Jean. He don't know some fellow done said the same thing about catching somebody around Betty Jean.'"
- p. 64 - "'The white man ain't paying you no mind. You ought to stop thinking like that. They been planning to tear these shacks down before you was born. You keep thinking everybody's against you and you ain't never gonna get nothing. I seen a hundred niggers too lazy to get up out the bed in the morning, talking about the white an is against them. That's just an excuse. You want to make something of your life, then the opportunity is there. You just have to shake off that "White folks is against me" attitude. Hell, they don't even know you alive.'"
- p. 65 - "'They knew I was alive when they drafted me and sent me over to Vietnam...'"
- p. 67 - "'It ain't all the time what you want. Sometimes it's about what you need. Black folks always get the two confused.'"
- p. 74 - "'I want somebody who's gonna share with me...not hide things from me.'"
- p. 75 - "'And you supposed to know...You supposed to know what's important to me like I'm supposed to know what's important to you. I'm not asking you to do it by yourself. I'm here with you. We in this together.'"
- p. 78 - "'Ain't nothing like owning some property. They might even call you for jury duty.'"
- p. 80 - "'If you trying to figure out what to do...you got to first figure out how you got in the situation you in. That's something simple. But you be surprised how many people can't figure that out.'"t
Isaac McClinton says in his introduction, "The story of Becker and Booster, a story of father and son, becomes the legend of every parent and child. The story of Youngblood and Rena, two young adults attempting with determination to do the heavy lifting that true love calls for, while trying to make a decent and better life for their son. Turnbo, Doub, Fielding, Shealy, ad Philmore, the drivers and customers of the jitney station, men who meet each day straight up and head on and who only want to reach the end of the day with the same amount of dignity and integrity that they began with. These are the stories that must be told and passed on because they reveal to us our humanity, giving us the hope that we might walk our day with a similar grace and nobility...These are things August Wilson wants you to know..." Highly recommended reading - but seeing an actual performance would trump reading the script! I hear "Jitney is coming to Broadway in 2017!
Penumbra's "Bookends" program offers theatre patrons a pre and post discussion of each of its productions. I was fortunate to get tickets for these discussions, but was not able to see the production itself, so I decided to read it. As a theatre major and teacher, I understand that reading a play is an entirely different experience than attending a performance of said play. Sans "spectacle" and "melody," one has the opportunity to look entirely at plot, character, and theme. I'm not a fan of drama strictly as "literature." A "Pioneer Press" reviewer referred to the "cacophony of voices" in Penumbra's current production. That wasn't my experience in reading the script.
"Jitney" refers to the nickel it cost in the early 20th century to take an unlicensed cab, generally centered in communities taxis didn't serve. Eventually, "jitney" referred to the cab itself. As Marion Isaac McClinton says in the introduction to the play, "When he was driving jitneys..., he wasn't just making money to take care of himself, he was also doing something to help take care of his community. He was...'providing a service.'" Set in 1977 Pittsburg, "Jitney" takes place in a jitney storefront where a group of jitney drivers, and the people in their lives, congregate. We learn that developers are going to level the block from which the jitney dispatches cabs, threatening the livelihoods and dreams of the drivers and those in their lives.
As a reader, what was more compelling to me were the themes implicit in the story. Questions I would like to ask at the final Bookend gathering will center around these themes. With the goal of a theatre that is for, by, and about the black community, which themes are particular to that community and which are more universal in nature? In terms of windows and mirrors, then, what does the black community see reflected about itself? What do those from other communities learn both about the black community and about themselves by looking through this window? Which ideas are a function of race, and which are functions of class? Given that the play is set in 1977, are the thematic ideas still relevant today? What has changed and what has not?
Some thematic ideas that I found interesting include:
- I am curious about the use of the word "slave" and "nigger" by the characters towards one another.
- p. 29 - "'What sense does it make for that McNeil boy to steal his grandmama's television? What sense it make for Shealy's nephew to break in Taylor's bar? What sense it make for that boy to run with his girlfriend's sister? Half these niggers around here running on empty and that boy at the top of the list.'"
- p. 30 - "'It ain't easy these days to raise a child. I don't know what's in these young boys' heads. Seem like they don't respect nobody. They don't even respect themselves. When I was coming along that was the first thing you learned. If you don't respect yourself...quite naturally you couldn't respect nobody else. When I was coming along the more respect you had for other people...the more people respected you. Seem like it come back to you double.'"
- p.31 - "'I just try to live and let live.'"
- p. 32 - "'Man, these white folks is slick. They think of all kind of ways to get your money.'"
- p. 36 - "'I'm just tired...Can't hardly explain it none. You look up one day and all you got left is what you ain't spent. Everyday cost you something and you don't all the time realize it.'"
- p. 38 - "'They won't be satisfied until they tear the whole goddam neighborhood down.'"
- p. 52 - "'You got to have somebody you can count on you know."
- p. 55 - "'You ain't got nothing now. You got less than the day you was born. Then you had some dignity. Some innocence...You ain't got nothing now. You took and threw it all away.'"
- p. 55 - "'What I ain't got is a son that did me honor...The Bible say "Honor thy father and thy mother." I ain't got that. I ain't got a son I can be proud of. That's what I ain't got. A son to come up behind me...living a good honest decent life. I got a son people point to and say, "That's Becker's boy. That's the one that killed that gal. That's Becker's boy The one they gave the electric chair. That's Becker's boy.'"
- p. 56 - "'I taught you two wrongs don't make a right.'"
- p. 56 - "'I don't know if you knew it Pop, but you were a big man. Everywhere you went people treated you like a big man...I would just look at you and wonder how you could be that big. I wanted to be like that. I would go to school and try to make myself feel big. But I never could. I told myself that's okay...when I got grown I'm gonna be big like that...I told myself if I ever got big I wouldn't let nothing make me small.'"
- p. 62 - "'It's them pretty women...get a man killed.'"
- p. 63 - "'The first thing a man do when he get a woman he don't want nobody else to have her. He say this is mine. i'm gonna hold on to this. I'm gonna go over and see Betty Jean but I'm gonna hold on to this. If I catch anybody sneaking around her sniffing...I'm gonna bust his nose and break both of his legs...He say that then he go on over to Betty Jean. He don't know some fellow done said the same thing about catching somebody around Betty Jean.'"
- p. 64 - "'The white man ain't paying you no mind. You ought to stop thinking like that. They been planning to tear these shacks down before you was born. You keep thinking everybody's against you and you ain't never gonna get nothing. I seen a hundred niggers too lazy to get up out the bed in the morning, talking about the white an is against them. That's just an excuse. You want to make something of your life, then the opportunity is there. You just have to shake off that "White folks is against me" attitude. Hell, they don't even know you alive.'"
- p. 65 - "'They knew I was alive when they drafted me and sent me over to Vietnam...'"
- p. 67 - "'It ain't all the time what you want. Sometimes it's about what you need. Black folks always get the two confused.'"
- p. 74 - "'I want somebody who's gonna share with me...not hide things from me.'"
- p. 75 - "'And you supposed to know...You supposed to know what's important to me like I'm supposed to know what's important to you. I'm not asking you to do it by yourself. I'm here with you. We in this together.'"
- p. 78 - "'Ain't nothing like owning some property. They might even call you for jury duty.'"
- p. 80 - "'If you trying to figure out what to do...you got to first figure out how you got in the situation you in. That's something simple. But you be surprised how many people can't figure that out.'"t
Isaac McClinton says in his introduction, "The story of Becker and Booster, a story of father and son, becomes the legend of every parent and child. The story of Youngblood and Rena, two young adults attempting with determination to do the heavy lifting that true love calls for, while trying to make a decent and better life for their son. Turnbo, Doub, Fielding, Shealy, ad Philmore, the drivers and customers of the jitney station, men who meet each day straight up and head on and who only want to reach the end of the day with the same amount of dignity and integrity that they began with. These are the stories that must be told and passed on because they reveal to us our humanity, giving us the hope that we might walk our day with a similar grace and nobility...These are things August Wilson wants you to know..." Highly recommended reading - but seeing an actual performance would trump reading the script! I hear "Jitney is coming to Broadway in 2017!
April 25, 2025
I don’t usually read plays. I wanted to see this play this summer but since the timing isn’t right I decided to read it. It all takes place in the 70s in Pittsburgh, around a cab company (the jitney) that services black neighborhoods.
I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more as a play. Themes are pretty dark (poverty, drinking, crime) but possibly representative of the time and place.
I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more as a play. Themes are pretty dark (poverty, drinking, crime) but possibly representative of the time and place.
September 25, 2020
Wonderful play. I don’t know why this play took so long to get to Broadway. This is a great play to fill out the century cycle.
June 29, 2019
Well...this is not the first time I have read this play, but I re-read it for the project I'm working on with my U.S. History class. I was an intern at Seattle Repertory Theater in 2001-2002, when I first read this play and encountered the man who wrote it. I got to spend some time with August Wilson during that time, and I had nothing but admiration for this particular play. I loved the choral nature of the dialogue and the complicated relationship between the father and son (Becker and Booster). I also think that this is one of the best ends to an Act 1 that I've ever read and seen. August paid me a compliment during the time I spent with him...he told the other intern that was attached to him, and I was only tagging along that she could bring me more often because I had a good sense of humor. (I laughed a lot during the rehearsals for JITNEY when the rest of the theater was quiet and anyone who knows my laugh knows that it's infectious...)
Anyway, it's still a good play, and I really enjoyed re-reading it.
6/29/19
Re-reading for scene study class in a prison class I'm teaching.
Two students in one of the prison classes I'm teaching are doing one of the Becker/Booster scenes, and I re-read the play because it looks like I might have to step in and play Becker because that student has ceased to come to class, and the student playing Booster has worked very hard on his scene, already.
It's interesting how life experience can make the perceptions one has for a play change. I have been teaching at a predominantly African-American Community College for the past five years and the vernacular has become second nature to me. I guess I have gotten "old," too because the line Turnbo says about people not respecting themselves, and thus not respecting others really resonated with me, as someone who has transformed into someone who says things like, "These young people don't understand..." My father died since the first time I encountered this play, and Becker's line that references how things don't matter after a monumental death, and how you can't wait for 'God to decide to hold [your] hand,' if you want to change your situation, you have to change it. That took several years of being stuck in mourning to learn. And, just like Becker, I realized that the things I thought used to matter, just don't anymore. I am also married, now, and have been in a relationship with the same person for over 11 years, and the line Becker has about his second marriage about pulling and pushing really struck me. This idea that sometimes one person pulls and the other pushes, or the other way around, but it's a "good" marriage as long as those movements are in the same direction. It isn't easy, but...it's part of the work... Anyway, I'm nervous to step into a role that (a) I should never do based on gender, race, age, etc. (b) is very fraught emotionally, which is hard to do with the armor needed to teach behind bars, but...I have no choice...
Back cover: "Set in 1970 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh that is served by a makeshift taxi company, JITNEY is a beautiful addition to the author's decade by decade cycle of plays about the black American experience in the twentieth century."
Quote I like: "Becker: Ain't nothing left to do now but get married. Come November it'll be seventeen years that me and Lucille been together. Seventeen years. I told her say work with me. She say okay. I wasn't sure what it meant myself. I thought it meant pull or push together. But she showed me one can push and the other can pull...as long as it's in the same direction. You know what I mean? It ain't all gonna flow together all the time. That's life. As long as it don't break apart. When you look around you'll see that all you got is each other. There ain't much more. Even when it look like there is...you come one day to find out there ain't much more worth having."
Anyway, it's still a good play, and I really enjoyed re-reading it.
6/29/19
Re-reading for scene study class in a prison class I'm teaching.
Two students in one of the prison classes I'm teaching are doing one of the Becker/Booster scenes, and I re-read the play because it looks like I might have to step in and play Becker because that student has ceased to come to class, and the student playing Booster has worked very hard on his scene, already.
It's interesting how life experience can make the perceptions one has for a play change. I have been teaching at a predominantly African-American Community College for the past five years and the vernacular has become second nature to me. I guess I have gotten "old," too because the line Turnbo says about people not respecting themselves, and thus not respecting others really resonated with me, as someone who has transformed into someone who says things like, "These young people don't understand..." My father died since the first time I encountered this play, and Becker's line that references how things don't matter after a monumental death, and how you can't wait for 'God to decide to hold [your] hand,' if you want to change your situation, you have to change it. That took several years of being stuck in mourning to learn. And, just like Becker, I realized that the things I thought used to matter, just don't anymore. I am also married, now, and have been in a relationship with the same person for over 11 years, and the line Becker has about his second marriage about pulling and pushing really struck me. This idea that sometimes one person pulls and the other pushes, or the other way around, but it's a "good" marriage as long as those movements are in the same direction. It isn't easy, but...it's part of the work... Anyway, I'm nervous to step into a role that (a) I should never do based on gender, race, age, etc. (b) is very fraught emotionally, which is hard to do with the armor needed to teach behind bars, but...I have no choice...
Back cover: "Set in 1970 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh that is served by a makeshift taxi company, JITNEY is a beautiful addition to the author's decade by decade cycle of plays about the black American experience in the twentieth century."
Quote I like: "Becker: Ain't nothing left to do now but get married. Come November it'll be seventeen years that me and Lucille been together. Seventeen years. I told her say work with me. She say okay. I wasn't sure what it meant myself. I thought it meant pull or push together. But she showed me one can push and the other can pull...as long as it's in the same direction. You know what I mean? It ain't all gonna flow together all the time. That's life. As long as it don't break apart. When you look around you'll see that all you got is each other. There ain't much more. Even when it look like there is...you come one day to find out there ain't much more worth having."
April 17, 2009
This book gets 3.5/5 stars (too bad goodreads doesn't give 1/2 stars!). But anyway, as I continue to read the August Wilson Century Cycle books during this fake spring break, I realize that this man does not fail to keep his characters grounded and true to the African American societies of each decade. Jitney is a play focusing on gypsy cab drivers post- Vietnam War in Pittsburgh (1977). There are men of all ages ranging from the Elder Turnbo, whose memories of the military and war do not fail to falter. Then we have Fielding, Becker, and Youngblood, whose high hopes and dreams do not seem to come true because of the poor situations that he is living in. At only 24, he was already in the military as well as raising a son and trying to maintain a marriage that his wife believes is all lies.
Not to give anything away, but Wilson does keep me engaged in his plays at all times. His accomplishments range from Pulitzer Prizes to Broadway theatres named in his honor.
I do plan to read all 9 or 10 books of this cycle. And I know that I will be opened to more ideas and struggles that african americans bravely came out of.
Not to give anything away, but Wilson does keep me engaged in his plays at all times. His accomplishments range from Pulitzer Prizes to Broadway theatres named in his honor.
I do plan to read all 9 or 10 books of this cycle. And I know that I will be opened to more ideas and struggles that african americans bravely came out of.
February 17, 2020
After seeing a production of Two Trains Running in early January, I embarked on an August Wilson jag, reading eight of his plays and completing his Century Cycle (I read the other two back in June of 2018).
Here is my ranking of them:
1) Fences (1950s)
2) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1920s)
3) Two Trains Running (1960s)
4) King Hedley II (1980s)
5) Jitney (1970s)
6) The Piano Lesson (1930s)
7) Gem of the Ocean (1900s)
8) Radio Golf (1990s)
9) Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1910s)
10) Seven Guitars (1940s)
I will gladly go see productions of any of them if I have the chance in the future.
Here is my ranking of them:
1) Fences (1950s)
2) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1920s)
3) Two Trains Running (1960s)
4) King Hedley II (1980s)
5) Jitney (1970s)
6) The Piano Lesson (1930s)
7) Gem of the Ocean (1900s)
8) Radio Golf (1990s)
9) Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1910s)
10) Seven Guitars (1940s)
I will gladly go see productions of any of them if I have the chance in the future.
August 7, 2015
This was the first August Wilson play I ever saw (in an unforgettable production at the Union Square Theatre) but I'd never read the script itself until now and it's just as wonderful on the page as on the stage. Wilson's gorgeous ensemble piece about car service drivers in Pittsburgh gifts each character with an arc and at least one lovely monologue; and the individual speeches can be like arias at times, an appropriate term given the operatic scope of "Jitney." There may be playwrights as good as Wilson but none better.
March 29, 2023
Great start to my august wilson marathon!!
Despite the lack of female characters, I loved how each and every character is defined by their scorned love life, in different, intricate ways.
The father and son dynamic is so wilson and it felt a little personal ngl.
All in all I can’t shake the feeling that each play’s gonna get better from here ~ 3.5-4 stars
Despite the lack of female characters, I loved how each and every character is defined by their scorned love life, in different, intricate ways.
The father and son dynamic is so wilson and it felt a little personal ngl.
All in all I can’t shake the feeling that each play’s gonna get better from here ~ 3.5-4 stars
December 29, 2016
OMG the last scene. I don't normally read drama, but I am starting to think I should read more! And of course this being a local play made it that much more interesting for me. Highly recommended!
October 16, 2022
God I Love August Wilson!!!! His writing is symphonic in it's poetry and yet it's real. Everyone should read Wilson's work!!
June 13, 2017
Mr. Wilson has such a natural beauty and flow with his words. They become poetry instantly.
March 23, 2024
This was the first play that Wilson wrote in the Century Cycle, and it is intriguing: It has the ensemble cast of a Wilson play, mainly male but with a key female figure; it's about Black people hanging on in a white world that thinks little of them and cares not at all (the car service exists because white cabbies won't go into the Black part of Pittsburgh for fares). It has philosophical musings, misunderstandings, obfuscation (what we would now call gaslighting).
It introduces one of Wilson's major themes, that of the fraught relationship between a father and son, notably carried out a few plays later in 'Fences'.
One of the things I really appreciated was the signature scene for Rena, the sole woman in the play. She's Youngblood's girlfriend and mother of their son. Youngblood is secretly saving up money and making plans to surprise Rena with a house, but Rena thinks all his hours away are to spend it with women. The confrontation that takes place towards the end of the play looks like it'll be a blow-up, but subtly changes into a loving reconciliation once Rena gets over the shock of Youngblood buying a house without her knowledge and his realization that while his motives were pure, his method was all wrong. It's a nice scene of young people finding their way back to a loving relationship.
This play feels like a leaner form of Wilson's work: It has the framework and characters of a Wilson play, but seems to lack some of the nuance and depth in his later work. Still, for a young playwright's first major play, it's a stunner.
I've seen it played onstage. Wilson leaves a lot of room for actors to inhabit their characters. The last scene, played correctly, has one of the strongest final punches of all his plays. And that's saying something.
It introduces one of Wilson's major themes, that of the fraught relationship between a father and son, notably carried out a few plays later in 'Fences'.
One of the things I really appreciated was the signature scene for Rena, the sole woman in the play. She's Youngblood's girlfriend and mother of their son. Youngblood is secretly saving up money and making plans to surprise Rena with a house, but Rena thinks all his hours away are to spend it with women. The confrontation that takes place towards the end of the play looks like it'll be a blow-up, but subtly changes into a loving reconciliation once Rena gets over the shock of Youngblood buying a house without her knowledge and his realization that while his motives were pure, his method was all wrong. It's a nice scene of young people finding their way back to a loving relationship.
This play feels like a leaner form of Wilson's work: It has the framework and characters of a Wilson play, but seems to lack some of the nuance and depth in his later work. Still, for a young playwright's first major play, it's a stunner.
I've seen it played onstage. Wilson leaves a lot of room for actors to inhabit their characters. The last scene, played correctly, has one of the strongest final punches of all his plays. And that's saying something.
December 23, 2025
Pretty solid but not super memorable compared to the other August Wilson plays I've read and really enjoyed.
Jitney takes place in 1977, and it is about a group of jitney drivers who work for a Black man named Jim Becker. Regular taxi cabs will not travel to the Pittsburgh Hill District of the 1970s, and so the residents turn to jitneys—unofficial, unlicensed taxi cabs—that operate in the community.
Many of the typical August Wilson tropes are present here. There is a recently released criminal, a man trying to start a new life, and the old school coming to terms with the reality of living in America. Out of all of his plays, this one feels the most modern since it takes place in the late-70s. At this point, my parents have been born, and I've seen many films about Black urbanites in the late-70s. These characters feel like they could have raised my parents, aunts, and uncles, who are all children of the 70s.
Anyway, this play is fine and was very entertaining. I like how fast-paced things were, and we immediately got to know the characters. What my rating boils down to is that the ending wasn't that satisfying and felt a little rushed. When I finished reading it, I just thought it was "cool."
Jitney takes place in 1977, and it is about a group of jitney drivers who work for a Black man named Jim Becker. Regular taxi cabs will not travel to the Pittsburgh Hill District of the 1970s, and so the residents turn to jitneys—unofficial, unlicensed taxi cabs—that operate in the community.
Many of the typical August Wilson tropes are present here. There is a recently released criminal, a man trying to start a new life, and the old school coming to terms with the reality of living in America. Out of all of his plays, this one feels the most modern since it takes place in the late-70s. At this point, my parents have been born, and I've seen many films about Black urbanites in the late-70s. These characters feel like they could have raised my parents, aunts, and uncles, who are all children of the 70s.
Anyway, this play is fine and was very entertaining. I like how fast-paced things were, and we immediately got to know the characters. What my rating boils down to is that the ending wasn't that satisfying and felt a little rushed. When I finished reading it, I just thought it was "cool."
March 28, 2019
3.5 stars
June 20, 2022
“I used to question God about everything. Why he hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Why he let Jacob steal his brother’s birthright? After Coreen died I told myself I wasn’t gonna ask no more questions. ‘Cause the answers didn’t matter. They didn’t matter right then. I thought that would change but it never did. It still don’t matter after all these years. It don’t look like it’s never gonna matter. I’m tired of waiting for God to decide whether he want to hold my hand.”
June 9, 2025
Great play - love the characters and the universal conflicts between people who have different priorities in life. I also enjoyed the portrayal of urban renewal policies in place in the 1970's.
February 21, 2021
Short drama.
Vivid look at the 1960's gig economy...where people just trying to make it the best they can as government/business makes it harder.
Community is made up of all kinds of people...Wilson gives us a good range of characters in this one.
Our Children will be our legacy whether we like what they have done in their lives or not
...Just love them anyway.
Vivid look at the 1960's gig economy...where people just trying to make it the best they can as government/business makes it harder.
Community is made up of all kinds of people...Wilson gives us a good range of characters in this one.
Our Children will be our legacy whether we like what they have done in their lives or not
...Just love them anyway.
March 18, 2018
From a study group at OLLI-DC, American University. Posted 3/6/2018
https://raymonddmaxwell.com/2018/03/0...
It was interesting the way we focused our discussion on relationships, the peripheral relationship between Turnbo and Rena, the complex and layered relationship between Becker and Booster, and the evolving, dynamic, almost dance-like relationship between Rena and Youngblood. Relationships are such an essential, human thing, always transforming, always reflecting the environment that surrounds them, for good or ill.
We could have easily spent the whole class period on Becker and Booster’s father-son relationship, Becker’s deep disappointment in the mistakes that his son made and the consequences of those mistakes, the hopes that Becker placed in Boomer, and the energy he attempted to transfer to the future where Boomer might have more and better opportunities than he had. But I also think that at some level, Boomer’s “acting up” and the decisions he took that incarcerated him was a rejection of the pressure he felt from his father, and a not so subtle decision that he was going to live his own life, not the one Becker tried to transfer over to him. At the play’s end, Boomer starts toward the door to leave the jitney office, but the phone rings, and after a negligible hesitation, Boomer goes over and answers the phone, “Car service” as the light fades to black. I think that motion and action symbolize that there is hope for Boomer and there is hope for the jitney operation.
There is of course a lot to be said about Youngblood and Rena. One thing we didn’t discuss today was the tenderness of emotion Becker displayed in his conversation with Rena and Youngblood. Becker says towards the end of Act 2 Scene 1,
"When you look around you’ll see that all you got is each other. There ain’t much more. Even when it look like there is…you come one day to find out there ain’t much more worth having."
Here we see that despite the gruff Becker displayed towards his own son, he never stopped developing as a father, never gave up on his own emotional development, and we are left wondering if one day he might overcome his great disappointment and be able to show a similar level of affection for Boomer that he clearly has for Youngblood. Alas, Becker’s potential for development is arrested on the factory floor so we will never know. As Vonnegut would say, “so it goes.”
We will see more of this relationship dynamic in Ma Rainey next week.
https://raymonddmaxwell.com/2018/03/0...
It was interesting the way we focused our discussion on relationships, the peripheral relationship between Turnbo and Rena, the complex and layered relationship between Becker and Booster, and the evolving, dynamic, almost dance-like relationship between Rena and Youngblood. Relationships are such an essential, human thing, always transforming, always reflecting the environment that surrounds them, for good or ill.
We could have easily spent the whole class period on Becker and Booster’s father-son relationship, Becker’s deep disappointment in the mistakes that his son made and the consequences of those mistakes, the hopes that Becker placed in Boomer, and the energy he attempted to transfer to the future where Boomer might have more and better opportunities than he had. But I also think that at some level, Boomer’s “acting up” and the decisions he took that incarcerated him was a rejection of the pressure he felt from his father, and a not so subtle decision that he was going to live his own life, not the one Becker tried to transfer over to him. At the play’s end, Boomer starts toward the door to leave the jitney office, but the phone rings, and after a negligible hesitation, Boomer goes over and answers the phone, “Car service” as the light fades to black. I think that motion and action symbolize that there is hope for Boomer and there is hope for the jitney operation.
There is of course a lot to be said about Youngblood and Rena. One thing we didn’t discuss today was the tenderness of emotion Becker displayed in his conversation with Rena and Youngblood. Becker says towards the end of Act 2 Scene 1,
"When you look around you’ll see that all you got is each other. There ain’t much more. Even when it look like there is…you come one day to find out there ain’t much more worth having."
Here we see that despite the gruff Becker displayed towards his own son, he never stopped developing as a father, never gave up on his own emotional development, and we are left wondering if one day he might overcome his great disappointment and be able to show a similar level of affection for Boomer that he clearly has for Youngblood. Alas, Becker’s potential for development is arrested on the factory floor so we will never know. As Vonnegut would say, “so it goes.”
We will see more of this relationship dynamic in Ma Rainey next week.
July 26, 2017
Jitney is a moving story of a group of men working in a taxi station. While many themes emerge, the ability to forgive is central. In exploring the lives of these men Wilson focuses on the impact of bitterness in shaping their lives. Despite several high impact moments it was difficult to become invested in the characters. Overall thought provoking reading.
February 27, 2017
My Winter of Wilson, Entry 6 ...
An underlying tension of Fences was the way that African-American fathers, despite their Herculean efforts to battle injustices and provide for their families, ultimately disappoint their sons. Jitney turns that tension around - what happens when a son, who's been given every advantage a father can provide, disappoints his father.
Jitney is a riveting play, and all of the salient themes of surviving oppression from Wilson's other masterworks are here. And in Wilson's brilliant sculpting of story, this working-class car service drama, set in the late 70's era of "urban renewal," takes on larger and more universal proportions. Social progress opens doors to home ownership, while city planners issue demolition orders to community businesses. And the men in the play struggle between worlds: domestic and wild, suburban and urban, change and stagnation, vengeance and holding your head up high, drink and sobriety.
This is also an excellent play through which to explore contemporary masculinity. The setting of the play is right about when the men's movement in the US began to split into pro- and anti-feminist camps, and certain scenes really seem to highlight this eventually divide.
A Favorite Passage:
TURNBO: [...] I don't know what's in these young boys heads. Seems like they don't respect nobody. They don't even respect themselves. When I was coming along that was the first thing you learned. If you didn't respect yourself ... quite naturally you couldn't respect nobody else. When I was coming along the more respect you had for other people ... the more people respected you. Seem like it come back to you double. These young boys don't know nothing about that ... and it's gonna take them a lifetime to find out.
An underlying tension of Fences was the way that African-American fathers, despite their Herculean efforts to battle injustices and provide for their families, ultimately disappoint their sons. Jitney turns that tension around - what happens when a son, who's been given every advantage a father can provide, disappoints his father.
Jitney is a riveting play, and all of the salient themes of surviving oppression from Wilson's other masterworks are here. And in Wilson's brilliant sculpting of story, this working-class car service drama, set in the late 70's era of "urban renewal," takes on larger and more universal proportions. Social progress opens doors to home ownership, while city planners issue demolition orders to community businesses. And the men in the play struggle between worlds: domestic and wild, suburban and urban, change and stagnation, vengeance and holding your head up high, drink and sobriety.
This is also an excellent play through which to explore contemporary masculinity. The setting of the play is right about when the men's movement in the US began to split into pro- and anti-feminist camps, and certain scenes really seem to highlight this eventually divide.
A Favorite Passage:
TURNBO: [...] I don't know what's in these young boys heads. Seems like they don't respect nobody. They don't even respect themselves. When I was coming along that was the first thing you learned. If you didn't respect yourself ... quite naturally you couldn't respect nobody else. When I was coming along the more respect you had for other people ... the more people respected you. Seem like it come back to you double. These young boys don't know nothing about that ... and it's gonna take them a lifetime to find out.
January 28, 2013
Set in 1977, and first produced in 1982, Jitney is the most urban to date of Wilson’s Century Cycle plays. The southern roots of the characters are less visible and not referred to. Instead, they are all from Pittsburgh of different generations (Korean and Vietnam War veterans) and all but the youngest character and the girlfriend of another work for a cab company that is struggling to provide a living for its owner, Becker, and drivers. Urban decay is threatening to take the building they operate in away from them. The youngest character, Becker’s son, is being released from prison where he served a term for killing his white girlfriend for lying about their relationship. All the drivers have opinions—about Becker and how he runs his business, about his son, about how each other handles his life. Two characters, Turnbo and Youngblood, threaten each other over personal boundaries.
As always within the small world that Wilson presents in his plays there is diversity of character and perspective beneath a common African-American experience and there is something distinctly American in the history and passion. Most importantly, however, there is also something universal to the human condition in the characters’ capacity for selfless and selfish behavior, pride and humility, hopes and dreams, and the way they throw humor at the face of life’s long odds and dark shadows. Jitney celebrates the resilience that grows from tragedy and the double-edge sword that is the language and poetry of African-American life. It also celebrates community as a kind of family that fights and intrudes but also unites, comforts, and rebuilds together.
As always within the small world that Wilson presents in his plays there is diversity of character and perspective beneath a common African-American experience and there is something distinctly American in the history and passion. Most importantly, however, there is also something universal to the human condition in the characters’ capacity for selfless and selfish behavior, pride and humility, hopes and dreams, and the way they throw humor at the face of life’s long odds and dark shadows. Jitney celebrates the resilience that grows from tragedy and the double-edge sword that is the language and poetry of African-American life. It also celebrates community as a kind of family that fights and intrudes but also unites, comforts, and rebuilds together.
October 4, 2016
Third of the August Wilson plays I've read, and the worst of the three. The drama focuses on the lives of several jitney drivers in 1977: one is a Vietnam Vet struggling to start a new life; another is an alcoholic; and the owner of the jitney station has a son who’s just been released from prison. Problem one is that none of the potential issues are probed deeply enough. They seem to be crafted on the potential for colorful characters (alcoholism, Vietnam War, prison), but don’t go beyond the casting sheet. They could have focused on Youngblood’s struggle as an African-American veteran trying to make a life for himself, but don’t. They could have made a deeper exploration into the struggle with alcoholism for African-Americans in poverty, but don’t. Wilson misses out on exploring to depths which his other plays have gone. Problem two is the pacing. The most active, most tension-filled scene comes at the end of Act One, a confrontation between the father and his newly-released ex-con son. After that, the play fails to produce any emotion or action. Most scenes seem fairly bland. Problem three is that the play’s few emotional confrontations come off as too contrived. The father-son confrontation tried too hard, and lacks the truth to it that the father-son confrontation in Fences had. Youngblood’s confrontation with his girl again pales in intensity and honesty to the one between Troy and his girl in Fences. The ending mirrors Fences in that a death occurs – but the resolution comes off weakly. A good play, but not quite the level of Fences to me.
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