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The Century Cycle #1
Gem of the Ocean
“No one except perhaps Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams has aimed so high and achieved so much in the American theater.”—John Lahr, The New Yorker
“A swelling battle hymn of transporting beauty. Theatergoers who have followed August Wilson’s career will find in Gem a touchstone for everything else he has written.”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“Wilson’s juiciest material. The play holds the stage and its characters hammer home, strongly, the notion of newfound freedom.”—Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Gem of the Ocean is the play that begins it all. Set in 1904 Pittsburgh, it is chronologically the first work in August Wilson’s decade-by-decade cycle dramatizing the African American experience during the 20th century—an unprecedented series that includes the Pulitzer Prize–winning plays Fences and The Piano Lesson. Aunt Esther, the drama’s 287-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her Hill District home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama searching for a new life. Gem of the Ocean recently played across the country and on Broadway, with Phylicia Rashad as Aunt Esther.
Earlier in 2005, on the completion of the final work of his ten play cycle-surely the most ambitious American dramatic project undertaken in our history-August Wilson disclosed his bout with cancer, an illness of unusual ferocity that would eventually claim his life on October 2. Fittingly the Broadway theatre where his last play will be produced in 2006 has been renamed the August Wilson Theater in his honor. His legacy will animate the theatre and stir the human heart for decades to come.
“A swelling battle hymn of transporting beauty. Theatergoers who have followed August Wilson’s career will find in Gem a touchstone for everything else he has written.”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“Wilson’s juiciest material. The play holds the stage and its characters hammer home, strongly, the notion of newfound freedom.”—Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Gem of the Ocean is the play that begins it all. Set in 1904 Pittsburgh, it is chronologically the first work in August Wilson’s decade-by-decade cycle dramatizing the African American experience during the 20th century—an unprecedented series that includes the Pulitzer Prize–winning plays Fences and The Piano Lesson. Aunt Esther, the drama’s 287-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her Hill District home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama searching for a new life. Gem of the Ocean recently played across the country and on Broadway, with Phylicia Rashad as Aunt Esther.
Earlier in 2005, on the completion of the final work of his ten play cycle-surely the most ambitious American dramatic project undertaken in our history-August Wilson disclosed his bout with cancer, an illness of unusual ferocity that would eventually claim his life on October 2. Fittingly the Broadway theatre where his last play will be produced in 2006 has been renamed the August Wilson Theater in his honor. His legacy will animate the theatre and stir the human heart for decades to come.
89 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
31 people are currently reading
2824 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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February 24, 2017
As part of Black History Month, I wanted to include a play by August Wilson, a premier playwright who authored the Century Cycle: ten plays each focusing on one decade of the African American experience in the 20th century. Wilson won the Pulitzer for drama for both Fences and The Piano Lesson and additional awards for his other works. Although the last play to be completed, Gem of the Ocean commences the Century Cycle by glimpsing life in 1900s Pittsburgh.
It is 1904, and older African Americans like Aunt Ester, Solly Two Kings, and Eli still remember what slavery was like. Ester keeps the paper recording her bill of sale in a drawer in her home, and Solly and Eli talk of the 62 people they delivered to safety while working on the Underground Railroad. As senior citizens, they are experiencing a taste of freedom for the first time in their lives; however, in many regards for them, slavery times were simpler. A person was either free or a slave, yet any proud person, did not need a paper to remind him that he was free before the eyes of G-D.
It is this wisdom that Aunt Ester attempts to impart on the younger generation who was only known freedom for their entire lives. Black Mary and Citizen Barlow seek out Ester in order to better various facets of their lives. At this time, African Americans are still grappling with life as free people. They seek jobs that are not always available to them and paid a pittance for the labor they put in, often not enough to live on. Many turn to stealing or striking on the job in hopes that future generations will enjoy more rights than they do. This is shown through the entire play as Caesar the law abiding citizen takes on a mob of strikers at a local mill, hoping to bring them to justice.
A theme in Wilson's plays is that he chooses one or two characters who are rooted in the past rather than the future. In Gem of the Ocean, Aunt Ester and Solly are such characters. It is difficult for them to come to terms with these new rights because they still see the world in terms of slavery versus freedom. Yet, by imparting their wisdom, they hope that the younger generations can enjoy freedoms that they only dreamed of during their days in bondage.
Gem of the Ocean is the fourth of Wilson's plays that I have read. If read chronologically it is an empowering read to commence the century cycle. The reader sees how northern blacks lived prior to the beginnings of the Great Migration, as Wilson plants the seeds for the wave of blacks who eventually find their way north. A powerful play, I hope to read the Century Cycle in its entirety. August Wilson was a gem of a playwright, and Gem of the Ocean measures up to his other award winning works.
It is 1904, and older African Americans like Aunt Ester, Solly Two Kings, and Eli still remember what slavery was like. Ester keeps the paper recording her bill of sale in a drawer in her home, and Solly and Eli talk of the 62 people they delivered to safety while working on the Underground Railroad. As senior citizens, they are experiencing a taste of freedom for the first time in their lives; however, in many regards for them, slavery times were simpler. A person was either free or a slave, yet any proud person, did not need a paper to remind him that he was free before the eyes of G-D.
It is this wisdom that Aunt Ester attempts to impart on the younger generation who was only known freedom for their entire lives. Black Mary and Citizen Barlow seek out Ester in order to better various facets of their lives. At this time, African Americans are still grappling with life as free people. They seek jobs that are not always available to them and paid a pittance for the labor they put in, often not enough to live on. Many turn to stealing or striking on the job in hopes that future generations will enjoy more rights than they do. This is shown through the entire play as Caesar the law abiding citizen takes on a mob of strikers at a local mill, hoping to bring them to justice.
A theme in Wilson's plays is that he chooses one or two characters who are rooted in the past rather than the future. In Gem of the Ocean, Aunt Ester and Solly are such characters. It is difficult for them to come to terms with these new rights because they still see the world in terms of slavery versus freedom. Yet, by imparting their wisdom, they hope that the younger generations can enjoy freedoms that they only dreamed of during their days in bondage.
Gem of the Ocean is the fourth of Wilson's plays that I have read. If read chronologically it is an empowering read to commence the century cycle. The reader sees how northern blacks lived prior to the beginnings of the Great Migration, as Wilson plants the seeds for the wave of blacks who eventually find their way north. A powerful play, I hope to read the Century Cycle in its entirety. August Wilson was a gem of a playwright, and Gem of the Ocean measures up to his other award winning works.
August 23, 2019
Set in 1904, The Gem of the Ocean is the first play in Wilson’s “Century Cycle” (sometimes called “The Pittsburgh Cycle") of ten plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century. It is a good place to start, for—other than mere chronology—it ably articulates the central themes of the cycle: how freedom is always partial, something continually sought, how both our dreams and our cynicism may hold us back—or spur us on—in our quest for freedom, depending on our knowledge of, and relationship with, the past.
Central to Gem of the Ocean--and the cycle—is the ancient Aunt Esther, a spiritual leader and healer of the black community who is rumored to be 285 years old. Convinced he has killed a man, the young Citizen Barlow (“Citizen” is his given name) seeks the help of Aunt Esther in order to expiate his guilt and guide his decisions. To heal him, she takes him on a hypnotic ritual journey to “The City of Bones”, traveling in “The Gem of the Ocean,” which is at one and the same time the small boat of his soul and the great boat of his people. Citizen’s journey—and what he learns about himself on that journey—constitute the core of the play.
Those who only know Wilson through his great play Fences may be disappointed, for Gem lacks the vivid characters and intense personal drama of that earlier play. It is an older man’s play (the ninth of the cycle to be written, although the first in order), reflective and meditative in its language and expressionistic in its dramatic technique. Its characters are often little more than mouths, stereotypes to speak the superb dialogue, and the plot lacks tension and urgency. Still, the climax—the scene of the boat journey itself—is very fine, a marvel of expressionistic theater which brings the play to a satisfying conclusion.
I will end with the voice of Aunt Esther, speaking of the nature of boats (and also hypnotizing Citizen with words in order to prepare him for his journey):
You ever seen a boat, Mr. Citizen. A boat is made out of a lot of things. Wood and rope. The sails look like bedsheets blowing in the wind. They make a snap when the winds catch them. Wood and rope and iron. The workmen with their hammers ringing. A boat is something. It takes a lot of men to make a boat. And it takes a lot of men to sail a boat. Them was some brave men. They left their family and didn’t know if they was ever gonna see them again. They got on that boat and went out into the world. The world’s a dangerous place, Mr. Citizen. It’s got all kinds of harms in it. It take God to Master the world. The world is a rough place. But there’s gold out there in the world. Them brave men went looking for it. Remember I told you you could take a ride on that boat? The wind catch up in them sails and you be off across the ocean. The wind will take you every which way. You need a strong arm to steer that boat. Don’t you feel it, Mr. Citizen? Don’t you feel that boat rocking? Just a rocking and a rocking. The wind blowing.
January 30, 2022
Well damn, that’s how you write a play. It’s nothing fancy it’s just incredible execution. Emotion. Language. Relationships. With the right actors and direction I know this play soars.
November 29, 2025
Gem of the Ocean was the first book in August Wilson’s ten-play cycle where he wrote a play for every roiling decade of the African-American experience in the twentieth century. It is said that August Wilson transformed historical tragedy into imaginative triumph. The plays of August Wilson portray the unmooring trauma of slavery. This first book in the ten-play cycle is Gem of the Ocean set in 1904 and beginning the historical trajectory taking African-Americans through the shock of freedom at the turn of the century. Having had the privilege of seeing many of August Wilson’s plays on stage and seeing August Wilson in some of them, I knew that I had to have this beautiful set where it has been on my desk since last Christmas. So I am excitedly starting Gem of the Ocean.
Gem of the Ocean is set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1904, four decades after the Emancipation Proclamation in the safe home of Aunt Esther, a beloved spiritual healer. Aunt Esther is nearly three hundred years old, like an ancient in the scriptures, passages which she often cites with passion. She is old enough to remember the crossing that brought her to these shores. Aunt Esther still holds on to the bill of sale from when she was a girl and bought by a white man. Her memories matter not only to her but to the life of the play. And in her words:
I am going to end this review by a beautiful quotation from the Foreword by Phylicia Rashad, a stage, television and film actor. She received a Tony nomination for her role as Aunt Esther in the Broadway production of Gem of the Ocean. Her poignant words:
Gem of the Ocean is set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1904, four decades after the Emancipation Proclamation in the safe home of Aunt Esther, a beloved spiritual healer. Aunt Esther is nearly three hundred years old, like an ancient in the scriptures, passages which she often cites with passion. She is old enough to remember the crossing that brought her to these shores. Aunt Esther still holds on to the bill of sale from when she was a girl and bought by a white man. Her memories matter not only to her but to the life of the play. And in her words:
“I keep my memories alive. I feed them. I got to feed them otherwise they’d eat me up. I got memories go way back. I’m carrying them for a lot of folk. All the old-timey folks. I’m carrying their memories and I’m carrying my own.”
I am going to end this review by a beautiful quotation from the Foreword by Phylicia Rashad, a stage, television and film actor. She received a Tony nomination for her role as Aunt Esther in the Broadway production of Gem of the Ocean. Her poignant words:
“August Wilson’s ‘Gem of the Ocean’ is like a great and mighty ship riding the waves of history. With sails at full mast, blown by the winds of clarity and tireless resolve, it surges onward toward its charted destination, the port of right understanding: ‘So live.’”
May 11, 2024
It's 1904, around 40 years since the emancipation of the slaves in America. However, most of the freed African-Americans had no land, no capital, and no formal education. Their close family members might have been sold so they did not have the generational family support that could have helped. When they traveled north, they were exploited by the factory owners. In Act 1 Scene 3, Solly Two Kings says:
"The people think they in freedom. I say I got it but what is it? I'm still trying to find out. It ain't never been nothing but trouble . . . All it mean is you got a long row to hoe and ain't got no plow. Ain't got no seed. Ain't got no mule. What good is freedom if you can't do nothing with it?"
The play is set in Aunt Ester's home where she and her friends take a troubled man, Barlow, on a spiritual journey. They travel mystically to the City of Bones filled with the bones of the ancestors who died when they were being transported in chains from Africa to the New World. Barlow is connected to his historical past, redeemed, and filled up with a sense of purpose for the future. Aunt Ester (whose name sounds like ancestor) is the connection between the past and the present. She is a goddess of water and an advisor for those with troubled minds who seek spiritual healing.
August Wilson wrote ten plays in his "Century Cycle." Chronologically "Gem of the Ocean" is in the first decade of the cycle, although it was the penultimate play in the order of writing. Like many of Wilson's later plays, mystical experiences are part of the drama. The title, "Gem of the Ocean," is the actual name of a boat that transported slaves across the Atlantic Ocean, and this play refers often to the trauma of slavery. The play has some very powerful characters so I would love to see it performed on stage.
"The people think they in freedom. I say I got it but what is it? I'm still trying to find out. It ain't never been nothing but trouble . . . All it mean is you got a long row to hoe and ain't got no plow. Ain't got no seed. Ain't got no mule. What good is freedom if you can't do nothing with it?"
The play is set in Aunt Ester's home where she and her friends take a troubled man, Barlow, on a spiritual journey. They travel mystically to the City of Bones filled with the bones of the ancestors who died when they were being transported in chains from Africa to the New World. Barlow is connected to his historical past, redeemed, and filled up with a sense of purpose for the future. Aunt Ester (whose name sounds like ancestor) is the connection between the past and the present. She is a goddess of water and an advisor for those with troubled minds who seek spiritual healing.
August Wilson wrote ten plays in his "Century Cycle." Chronologically "Gem of the Ocean" is in the first decade of the cycle, although it was the penultimate play in the order of writing. Like many of Wilson's later plays, mystical experiences are part of the drama. The title, "Gem of the Ocean," is the actual name of a boat that transported slaves across the Atlantic Ocean, and this play refers often to the trauma of slavery. The play has some very powerful characters so I would love to see it performed on stage.
February 27, 2024
Gem of the Ocean is set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood in 1904. Chronologically the first play of Wilson’s magnificent Century Cycle, it was the penultimate play in his written order. This allowed Wilson to lead off his ten play cycle following the Black American experience through every decade of the 20th century with a mature, reflective, almost mystical play that would encapsulated and define the plays to follow.
Appropriately, the setting of this play is the house at 1839 Wylie Avenue — the home of the wise woman Aunt Ester. Gem of the Ocean is the only play in which Aunt Ester is actually on stage, but she is an important off stage presence in three of the other plays, and her placement here in this first play of the cycle established her central importance to the whole. Everything about her is symbolic, starting with her name — Aunt Ester = Ancestors. Her address at 1839 Wylie Ave. is a nod to the 1839 seizure of the slave ship Amistad by the Africans who successfully escaped their bonds to capture it. Aunt Ester’s fantastical old age, given as 285, would make her birth date 1619 — the year African slaves were initially brought to America. She is the symbol of the past, the traditions, the knowledge which must be kept, remembered, treasured, and passed on.
The play itself addresses the theme of adjusting to what freedom means for Blacks still within living memory of slavery — how to adapt to the unfair rules of an unequal game. Solly Two Kings, an old man born into slavery put it this way:
”You got to fight to make it mean something. All it mean is you got a long row to hoe and ain’t got no plow. Ain’t got no seed. Ain’t got no mule. What good is freedom if you can’t do nothing with it?”
Meanwhile, Caesar is a Black man reviled by his own community because he owns a bakery that extorts them and works as a kind of sheriff enforcing the white man’s law. Yet he, too, is trying to make adjustments to an untenable situation:
”I got to play the hand that was dealt to me. You look around and see you black. You look at the calendar. Slavery’s over… You look and see the race you got to run is different than somebody else’s. Maybe it’s got more hills. It’s longer. But this is what I got. Now what to do with it?”
And for some, like Citizen Barlow, the adjustment proves unbearable, and he comes to Aunt Ester for healing, as she sends him on a mystical journey to The City of Bones.
I suggest reading Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, the first and last plays of the cycle, back to back. The last two plays written, they perfectly bookend the cycle, and are directly connected, though separated in time on either end of the century.
Appropriately, the setting of this play is the house at 1839 Wylie Avenue — the home of the wise woman Aunt Ester. Gem of the Ocean is the only play in which Aunt Ester is actually on stage, but she is an important off stage presence in three of the other plays, and her placement here in this first play of the cycle established her central importance to the whole. Everything about her is symbolic, starting with her name — Aunt Ester = Ancestors. Her address at 1839 Wylie Ave. is a nod to the 1839 seizure of the slave ship Amistad by the Africans who successfully escaped their bonds to capture it. Aunt Ester’s fantastical old age, given as 285, would make her birth date 1619 — the year African slaves were initially brought to America. She is the symbol of the past, the traditions, the knowledge which must be kept, remembered, treasured, and passed on.
The play itself addresses the theme of adjusting to what freedom means for Blacks still within living memory of slavery — how to adapt to the unfair rules of an unequal game. Solly Two Kings, an old man born into slavery put it this way:
”You got to fight to make it mean something. All it mean is you got a long row to hoe and ain’t got no plow. Ain’t got no seed. Ain’t got no mule. What good is freedom if you can’t do nothing with it?”
Meanwhile, Caesar is a Black man reviled by his own community because he owns a bakery that extorts them and works as a kind of sheriff enforcing the white man’s law. Yet he, too, is trying to make adjustments to an untenable situation:
”I got to play the hand that was dealt to me. You look around and see you black. You look at the calendar. Slavery’s over… You look and see the race you got to run is different than somebody else’s. Maybe it’s got more hills. It’s longer. But this is what I got. Now what to do with it?”
And for some, like Citizen Barlow, the adjustment proves unbearable, and he comes to Aunt Ester for healing, as she sends him on a mystical journey to The City of Bones.
I suggest reading Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, the first and last plays of the cycle, back to back. The last two plays written, they perfectly bookend the cycle, and are directly connected, though separated in time on either end of the century.
January 17, 2021
Thanks to a generous and thoughtful Christmas gift from my sister, I'm kicking off my new year of reading by working through this beautiful boxed set of August Wilson's Century/Pittsburgh Cycle, ten plays chronicling various aspects of the Black experience in America, each play set in Pittsburgh's Hill district and representing a different decade of the 20th century.
Even though this is the next to last play Wilson wrote in this series, it represents the first decade and seemed like the best place to begin.
It's an illuminating and inspiring look at three generations of Black Americans grappling with how best to define and achieve "freedom" during a time when chattel slavery might have been officially outlawed, but white supremacy still restricted, oppressed, and terrorized the lives of Black people through things like Jim Crow laws, indentured servitude, corrupt lending practices, and of course brutality, murder, and rampant injustice at the hands of police and the "law."
Set in 1904, this play's main character is Aunt Ester, a wise old woman who has lived most of her long life in slavery, but is now revered by the community as a kind of healer and spiritual guide.
The play also features a small cast of supporting characters who either reside with Aunt Ester or frequently visit her home. This includes Solly Two Kings, a former conductor on the Underground Railroad and scout for the Union Army during the Civil War; Caesar Wilks, the local constable and "self-made" businessman who values capitalism and "law and order" above all else, even when that means hurting his own people (he'd no doubt be a celebrated guest on Fox News were he living today); and Citizen Barlow, a troubled young man newly arrived from the South who seeks out Aunt Ester's spiritual healing and guidance.
Wilson's dialogue pops and crackles with humor and wisdom, and there are some fascinating meditations on the importance of Memory and Community to the Black experience, the need to confront and remember the Past, no matter how painful, in order to better understand the Present and build a better Future, both at an individual and collective level.
I especially loved the way Wilson dramatizes a literal and metaphorical "conversation" between the generation who actually experienced firsthand the horrors of slavery, and a younger generation born after Emancipation, whose only knowledge of slavery is through the stories shared by their elders.
It's always tricky reviewing plays because let's face it, they're meant to be seen and not read. Maybe that's why this left me wanting more? The characters, at least on the written page, come across more as symbols than complex, breathing human beings. They are mouthpieces for important ideas more than expressions of true, lived experience.
There's also a strange, surreal sequence near the end involving some mysticism and spiritual symbolism that seemed dry and disjointed on the written page, but would probably be quite powerful and cathartic when seen on the stage.
As a written text, I'm only giving this 3 stars, but I'm sure an ambitious production in the right creative hands could easily earn 4 or 5.
Even though this is the next to last play Wilson wrote in this series, it represents the first decade and seemed like the best place to begin.
It's an illuminating and inspiring look at three generations of Black Americans grappling with how best to define and achieve "freedom" during a time when chattel slavery might have been officially outlawed, but white supremacy still restricted, oppressed, and terrorized the lives of Black people through things like Jim Crow laws, indentured servitude, corrupt lending practices, and of course brutality, murder, and rampant injustice at the hands of police and the "law."
Set in 1904, this play's main character is Aunt Ester, a wise old woman who has lived most of her long life in slavery, but is now revered by the community as a kind of healer and spiritual guide.
The play also features a small cast of supporting characters who either reside with Aunt Ester or frequently visit her home. This includes Solly Two Kings, a former conductor on the Underground Railroad and scout for the Union Army during the Civil War; Caesar Wilks, the local constable and "self-made" businessman who values capitalism and "law and order" above all else, even when that means hurting his own people (he'd no doubt be a celebrated guest on Fox News were he living today); and Citizen Barlow, a troubled young man newly arrived from the South who seeks out Aunt Ester's spiritual healing and guidance.
Wilson's dialogue pops and crackles with humor and wisdom, and there are some fascinating meditations on the importance of Memory and Community to the Black experience, the need to confront and remember the Past, no matter how painful, in order to better understand the Present and build a better Future, both at an individual and collective level.
I especially loved the way Wilson dramatizes a literal and metaphorical "conversation" between the generation who actually experienced firsthand the horrors of slavery, and a younger generation born after Emancipation, whose only knowledge of slavery is through the stories shared by their elders.
It's always tricky reviewing plays because let's face it, they're meant to be seen and not read. Maybe that's why this left me wanting more? The characters, at least on the written page, come across more as symbols than complex, breathing human beings. They are mouthpieces for important ideas more than expressions of true, lived experience.
There's also a strange, surreal sequence near the end involving some mysticism and spiritual symbolism that seemed dry and disjointed on the written page, but would probably be quite powerful and cathartic when seen on the stage.
As a written text, I'm only giving this 3 stars, but I'm sure an ambitious production in the right creative hands could easily earn 4 or 5.
November 25, 2016
Profound and Meaningful.
I always find it astonishing how author/playwright August Wilson was able to harness so much depth and meaning into a play. Plays are short. The average play usually doesn't run more than two hours. Most plays in written form normally never exceed a little over one-hundred pages. Yet, an August Wilson play has a way of imparting so much in so little time that it puts to shame works with numerous words and pages. I think it almost encourages one to check their self. It's not how much you say, it's what your words are really saying. It's not how many words are written but what is the meaning. I shouldn't be surprised. Each of August Wilson's plays that I have read so far, Fences and The Piano Lesson are full of this depth. He had an art for delivering a message in such a way that you are knocked aback into the thoughts and ponderings of the message. And yes, there is always a message. A message that spawns discussion about the history and the imperative sociological issues within the African American community. And not just as a whole but broken down into the sectors of gender, age, class and colorisim. What I always find interesting is how he also relates his African American characters to the ratio of other races and classes that they live amongst in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Of course I'm partial because this is my home city. It makes his plays even more engrossing for me to see a glimpse of how African Americans of a different generation lived differently and sometimes similarly to how they live now in this city. I read his plays and think of my great grandparents who migrated to Pittsburgh back in the early days after slavery and later during the great migration from the south. How it must have been hard. How I know it was hard from their stories. And what I don't know, August is a type of historian who fills in the blanks. Not only about the people but also about the city itself.
Pittsburgh is an old city. In grade school we're not taught much about our own turf. It is sad. Another reason why I love reading these plays is because when August mentions these old streets, landmarks, locations and things that are no longer there, I start internet researching and educating myself about what all this modern everything has forgotten to teach us all. About our history. About our past. Not only cultural historical but the geographical history of where we reside. The internet is so full of information if one only looks. These books also encourage me to find out more about my city and then wow people into discussions that encourage them to also want to learn more. That's what I believe is the magic and talent of a good author. The ability to enjoy an engrossing story, to write quote worthy profound statements and to open up the conversation, any worthwhile conversation, that keeps birthing dialogue within, throughout and after the pages of the book have closed. In this case, also after the theater curtain has fallen.
5 stars of course. I wasn't as fond of the ending as I could have been but that took nothing away from the experience I had with this book. I most definitely will read all the rest of his monumental plays and do recommend them to any and everyone. This is modern classic reading.
If you are looking for something more about the play, read the quotes I've posted.
I always find it astonishing how author/playwright August Wilson was able to harness so much depth and meaning into a play. Plays are short. The average play usually doesn't run more than two hours. Most plays in written form normally never exceed a little over one-hundred pages. Yet, an August Wilson play has a way of imparting so much in so little time that it puts to shame works with numerous words and pages. I think it almost encourages one to check their self. It's not how much you say, it's what your words are really saying. It's not how many words are written but what is the meaning. I shouldn't be surprised. Each of August Wilson's plays that I have read so far, Fences and The Piano Lesson are full of this depth. He had an art for delivering a message in such a way that you are knocked aback into the thoughts and ponderings of the message. And yes, there is always a message. A message that spawns discussion about the history and the imperative sociological issues within the African American community. And not just as a whole but broken down into the sectors of gender, age, class and colorisim. What I always find interesting is how he also relates his African American characters to the ratio of other races and classes that they live amongst in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Of course I'm partial because this is my home city. It makes his plays even more engrossing for me to see a glimpse of how African Americans of a different generation lived differently and sometimes similarly to how they live now in this city. I read his plays and think of my great grandparents who migrated to Pittsburgh back in the early days after slavery and later during the great migration from the south. How it must have been hard. How I know it was hard from their stories. And what I don't know, August is a type of historian who fills in the blanks. Not only about the people but also about the city itself.
Pittsburgh is an old city. In grade school we're not taught much about our own turf. It is sad. Another reason why I love reading these plays is because when August mentions these old streets, landmarks, locations and things that are no longer there, I start internet researching and educating myself about what all this modern everything has forgotten to teach us all. About our history. About our past. Not only cultural historical but the geographical history of where we reside. The internet is so full of information if one only looks. These books also encourage me to find out more about my city and then wow people into discussions that encourage them to also want to learn more. That's what I believe is the magic and talent of a good author. The ability to enjoy an engrossing story, to write quote worthy profound statements and to open up the conversation, any worthwhile conversation, that keeps birthing dialogue within, throughout and after the pages of the book have closed. In this case, also after the theater curtain has fallen.
5 stars of course. I wasn't as fond of the ending as I could have been but that took nothing away from the experience I had with this book. I most definitely will read all the rest of his monumental plays and do recommend them to any and everyone. This is modern classic reading.
If you are looking for something more about the play, read the quotes I've posted.
March 28, 2024
1904, Pittsburgh. Right before The Great Migration. Aunt Esther's peaceful home is the setting for many fine characters. There is Solly Two Kings, who helped the enslaved flee to freedom. There is Black Mary, who is training with Aunt Esther, who is a spiritual healer. There's Citizen Barlow, up from Alabama. Also, Black Mary's brother Ceasar Wilks, a constable who is trying to enforce the (white man's) law but seemingly has no compassion for his people and their terrible difficulties in the regular day-to-day living of life.
A man accused of stealing a bucket of nails from the local mill drowns in the river. That action in the plot allows for a mystical trip for one of the characters to board the boat named Gem of the Ocean and travel over the water to the City of Bones. I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not read or viewed the play so I'll pause there with my descriptions.
A man accused of stealing a bucket of nails from the local mill drowns in the river. That action in the plot allows for a mystical trip for one of the characters to board the boat named Gem of the Ocean and travel over the water to the City of Bones. I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not read or viewed the play so I'll pause there with my descriptions.
January 15, 2016
It is perhaps an open question as to the order in which one should read August Wilson’s plays—the chronological order of the Century Cycle, Wilson’s ten-play decade-by-decade portrayal of the African-American experience in the twentieth century, moving from Gem of the Ocean to Radio Golf? the order of composition, in which case you would be reading Gem of the Ocean toward the end? the order of general-consensus quality, in which case you would probably go for Fences and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson first?
I initially chose the latter option and read Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the second play of the Century Cycle, the fifth in order of the composition of Wilson’s published plays, and the author’s own favorite among his works. But I admired it enough that I decided I would read the whole Cycle eventually (an added motivation is that I, like Wilson, am from Pittsburgh—and, for that matter, that I moved from Pittsburgh to the Twin Cities as Wilson did, not to push the parallels too far!). So I decided that I would proceed in the order of the Century Cycle, which brings me to the earliest play in the sequence, and the penultimate play Wilson wrote before his death, Gem of the Ocean.
This drama is set in the Hill District, Pittsburgh’s historic black neighborhood, in 1904. It focuses on the house of Aunt Ester, “a very old, yet vital spiritual advisor for the community,” as Wilson calls her in the dramatis personae. This centuries-old seer has the power to “wash the soul,” which is why a young man from Alabama called Citizen Barlow seeks her out—he has a sin to expiate. Meanwhile, though the play never leaves 1839 Wylie Avenue, the situation is growing grave outside: in Pittsburgh itself, the black millworkers are about to strike over the drowning of their co-worker, falsely accused of stealing some nails; in the South, where some of the characters still have family, the law is being used to halt the Great Migration, to keep black labor where southern whites can profit from it. The heroic veteran of the Underground Railroad, Solly Two Kings (who named himself, upon escaping slavery, for the Biblical kings Solomon and David—which is to say, allegorically, wisdom and strength) plans to take his notched stick down South to rescue his sister. In the midst of these events, the brother of Aunt Ester’s housekeeper Black Alice, a man called Caesar, has become a constable who threatens to arrest almost every character in the play and who delivers long paeans to law and order.
Eventually, these characters and conflicts coalesce, as you would expect in a well-made play; but this is something more than well-made play. Its climax is not so much a single event in the plot as the pageant-like ritual during which Aunt Ester, aided by family and friends, leads Citizen Barlow on a spiritual visitation to “the city of bones” at the bottom of the ocean, where the bodies of those enslaved Africans who did not survive the Middle Passage rest. The characters don “European masks” and act out the experience of slavery itself, pretending to be white slavers who capture Citizen and then fall prey to the shipwreck that sends him on his journey to the underworld. (The play’s title comes from the name of the ship, Gem of the Ocean.) This is both a mythologically resonant performance—audaciously placed in the middle of an ostensibly realistic Ibsenite or Millerite historical drama—and a defense of the art of the drama itself as a purifying and cleansing rite.
But even the more realistic aspects of Gem of the Ocean are deceptive, for apart from the mythopoeia, there is also a beautifully economical political allegory. Solly Two Kings represents the Biblical heroism, the royal individualism, of the generation that had to fight its way clear of slavery. Caesar, as his name implies, stands for worldly as against spiritual power—and also stands for the figure of the black conservative, from Booker T. Washington to Clarence Thomas, the servant of the dominant culture who polices his people. He wields the law as a weapon against spiritual freedom, which is the essence of his conflict with Solly:
It is a pleasure to read such an artful construction, even leaving aside Wilson’s visionary audacity and vernacular poetry. I look forward to going on the in the Cycle. In the meantime, in lieu of my quoting said poetic prose from the text, you may wish to listen to some of it instead.
I initially chose the latter option and read Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the second play of the Century Cycle, the fifth in order of the composition of Wilson’s published plays, and the author’s own favorite among his works. But I admired it enough that I decided I would read the whole Cycle eventually (an added motivation is that I, like Wilson, am from Pittsburgh—and, for that matter, that I moved from Pittsburgh to the Twin Cities as Wilson did, not to push the parallels too far!). So I decided that I would proceed in the order of the Century Cycle, which brings me to the earliest play in the sequence, and the penultimate play Wilson wrote before his death, Gem of the Ocean.
This drama is set in the Hill District, Pittsburgh’s historic black neighborhood, in 1904. It focuses on the house of Aunt Ester, “a very old, yet vital spiritual advisor for the community,” as Wilson calls her in the dramatis personae. This centuries-old seer has the power to “wash the soul,” which is why a young man from Alabama called Citizen Barlow seeks her out—he has a sin to expiate. Meanwhile, though the play never leaves 1839 Wylie Avenue, the situation is growing grave outside: in Pittsburgh itself, the black millworkers are about to strike over the drowning of their co-worker, falsely accused of stealing some nails; in the South, where some of the characters still have family, the law is being used to halt the Great Migration, to keep black labor where southern whites can profit from it. The heroic veteran of the Underground Railroad, Solly Two Kings (who named himself, upon escaping slavery, for the Biblical kings Solomon and David—which is to say, allegorically, wisdom and strength) plans to take his notched stick down South to rescue his sister. In the midst of these events, the brother of Aunt Ester’s housekeeper Black Alice, a man called Caesar, has become a constable who threatens to arrest almost every character in the play and who delivers long paeans to law and order.
Eventually, these characters and conflicts coalesce, as you would expect in a well-made play; but this is something more than well-made play. Its climax is not so much a single event in the plot as the pageant-like ritual during which Aunt Ester, aided by family and friends, leads Citizen Barlow on a spiritual visitation to “the city of bones” at the bottom of the ocean, where the bodies of those enslaved Africans who did not survive the Middle Passage rest. The characters don “European masks” and act out the experience of slavery itself, pretending to be white slavers who capture Citizen and then fall prey to the shipwreck that sends him on his journey to the underworld. (The play’s title comes from the name of the ship, Gem of the Ocean.) This is both a mythologically resonant performance—audaciously placed in the middle of an ostensibly realistic Ibsenite or Millerite historical drama—and a defense of the art of the drama itself as a purifying and cleansing rite.
But even the more realistic aspects of Gem of the Ocean are deceptive, for apart from the mythopoeia, there is also a beautifully economical political allegory. Solly Two Kings represents the Biblical heroism, the royal individualism, of the generation that had to fight its way clear of slavery. Caesar, as his name implies, stands for worldly as against spiritual power—and also stands for the figure of the black conservative, from Booker T. Washington to Clarence Thomas, the servant of the dominant culture who polices his people. He wields the law as a weapon against spiritual freedom, which is the essence of his conflict with Solly:
CAESAR: You under arrest.But the figure who inherits Solly’s mantle at the end of the play is Citizen. This implies that the promise of freedom under and within the law must be fulfilled, as against Caesar’s mere tyranny and even Solly’s historically necessary but limited lordly antinomianism. Thus the play leaves us on the threshold of the twentieth century.
SOLLY: I’m under God’s sky, motherfucker! That’s what I’m under!
It is a pleasure to read such an artful construction, even leaving aside Wilson’s visionary audacity and vernacular poetry. I look forward to going on the in the Cycle. In the meantime, in lieu of my quoting said poetic prose from the text, you may wish to listen to some of it instead.
October 15, 2013
I put off doing the last of the Cycle reviews, in part because I was reluctant to be done with it all and in part because it is difficult to narrow in on what to say. Each of Wilson's plays overflows with plot and characters and voice. Even months later, I remain overwhelmed by each play and by the Cycle as a whole.
It is perhaps fitting that in the play following Aunt Ester's death, she is returned to the reader/viewer in the most central role she takes on in all of the Cycle. In 1904, she is in her late 200s and in her prime. Her house at 1839 Wylie Street, an almost mythical and largely off-site location in other plays, is the central scene here. Her personal legacy is in full bloom in Gem of the Ocean, but because we are meeting her for the first (and last) time (how very River Song of her--or rather, how very Ester of River Song), she is also setting wheels in motion that will inform at least the latter half of Wilson's Cycle.
I realize that I haven't spent a lot of time on the bread-and-butter of Wilson's plays. His monologues, no less than those brief scenes that I admire so much, brilliantly mark Wilson's plays as his own. They propel the moral heart of the story, cut incisively through the BS (whether it be the BS of the decade, or merely that of another character). They can be sage, or angry, or powerful, or redemptive; or frustrated--often they are some combination therefore. They show what matters. But in reading the cycle back-to-back, I think I started to take them for granted. The monologues take a new importance here, in part because it is the monologue that drives the magical element of the play. Citizen Barlow narrates and Aunt Ester directs the journey to the City of Bones, such that the words bring the journey to life for both the characters and the reader/viewer. And these words are beautiful--some of the most lyrical and forceful of Wilson's monologues.
In Citizen Barlow, Black Mary, Solly Two Kings, and of course Aunt Ester, we get some of my favorite characters. Two Kings is perhaps one of Wilson's most unabashed, straight-up heroes. In their own way, both he and Ester act as guides for those trying to see their way through a new generation. Black Mary and Citizen Barlow were younger, still finding their footing in a generation still trying to find and define freedom. The emotions that ran through the play were palpable and raw. The path forged by these characters—the heroes, the leaders, the searches, create pathways that weave through the cycle and end (but continue) with the next and last play, Radio Golf. It is an origin story, of sorts, if not for the characters, then for the Cycle itself. It comes at the right time: after it has been earned, as we prepare to say goodbye.
It is perhaps fitting that in the play following Aunt Ester's death, she is returned to the reader/viewer in the most central role she takes on in all of the Cycle. In 1904, she is in her late 200s and in her prime. Her house at 1839 Wylie Street, an almost mythical and largely off-site location in other plays, is the central scene here. Her personal legacy is in full bloom in Gem of the Ocean, but because we are meeting her for the first (and last) time (how very River Song of her--or rather, how very Ester of River Song), she is also setting wheels in motion that will inform at least the latter half of Wilson's Cycle.
I realize that I haven't spent a lot of time on the bread-and-butter of Wilson's plays. His monologues, no less than those brief scenes that I admire so much, brilliantly mark Wilson's plays as his own. They propel the moral heart of the story, cut incisively through the BS (whether it be the BS of the decade, or merely that of another character). They can be sage, or angry, or powerful, or redemptive; or frustrated--often they are some combination therefore. They show what matters. But in reading the cycle back-to-back, I think I started to take them for granted. The monologues take a new importance here, in part because it is the monologue that drives the magical element of the play. Citizen Barlow narrates and Aunt Ester directs the journey to the City of Bones, such that the words bring the journey to life for both the characters and the reader/viewer. And these words are beautiful--some of the most lyrical and forceful of Wilson's monologues.
In Citizen Barlow, Black Mary, Solly Two Kings, and of course Aunt Ester, we get some of my favorite characters. Two Kings is perhaps one of Wilson's most unabashed, straight-up heroes. In their own way, both he and Ester act as guides for those trying to see their way through a new generation. Black Mary and Citizen Barlow were younger, still finding their footing in a generation still trying to find and define freedom. The emotions that ran through the play were palpable and raw. The path forged by these characters—the heroes, the leaders, the searches, create pathways that weave through the cycle and end (but continue) with the next and last play, Radio Golf. It is an origin story, of sorts, if not for the characters, then for the Cycle itself. It comes at the right time: after it has been earned, as we prepare to say goodbye.
June 24, 2015
While I'm doing my biannual read of the Harry Potter series, I thought I'd also read through, for the first time, the August Wilson "Century Cycle" of plays. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Wilson at the Langston Hughes Library in Corona, Queens, about 11 years ago. I enjoyed the TV-movie adaptation of The Piano Lesson, and I saw Joe Turner's Come and Gone on Broadway shortly after the Obamas saw it. I tried to see Radio Golf but it was sold out. I also reviewed a community theater production of Jitney for nytheatre.com.
Naturally, I'm reading the plays in the stories' chronological order: Gem of the Ocean and the early 1900s first. Aunt Ester appears to run a boarding house in Pittsburgh, PA, with her helper Eli and her protege Black Mary. Ester, over 200 years old, is known as a "washer of souls". To her house comes Citizen Barlow, a young man who desperately needs some soul-cleaning. Also in the mix are Solly, who wants to rescue his sister from the Jim Crow South, Rutherford Selig, a local peddler, and Caesar Wilkes, Mary's brother, a power-mad constable. A drowning, a potential factory strike, and a post-slavery Underground Railroad figure into the plot.
I like how the play delves into the factual and spiritual history of African-Americans from the Middle Passage to slavery to freedom to Jim Crow. It reveals how White America put so much energy into trapping the Blacks in bondage decades after slavery ended. Aunt Ester is what you'd expect from an Earth Mother--wise, caring, at times critical--and she's a fascinating character. The play evokes Biblical images as well as what may be echoes of African tribal spirituality.
I think August Wilson's characters and scenarios are rich and engaging, but to my experience so far, at least some of his plays are weak on plot. Interesting things happen and I learn a lot, but I don't feel satisfied at the end of the journey, as if some goal was missed or not even noticed.
Still, I recommend Gem of the Ocean, and I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing it on stage.
Naturally, I'm reading the plays in the stories' chronological order: Gem of the Ocean and the early 1900s first. Aunt Ester appears to run a boarding house in Pittsburgh, PA, with her helper Eli and her protege Black Mary. Ester, over 200 years old, is known as a "washer of souls". To her house comes Citizen Barlow, a young man who desperately needs some soul-cleaning. Also in the mix are Solly, who wants to rescue his sister from the Jim Crow South, Rutherford Selig, a local peddler, and Caesar Wilkes, Mary's brother, a power-mad constable. A drowning, a potential factory strike, and a post-slavery Underground Railroad figure into the plot.
I like how the play delves into the factual and spiritual history of African-Americans from the Middle Passage to slavery to freedom to Jim Crow. It reveals how White America put so much energy into trapping the Blacks in bondage decades after slavery ended. Aunt Ester is what you'd expect from an Earth Mother--wise, caring, at times critical--and she's a fascinating character. The play evokes Biblical images as well as what may be echoes of African tribal spirituality.
I think August Wilson's characters and scenarios are rich and engaging, but to my experience so far, at least some of his plays are weak on plot. Interesting things happen and I learn a lot, but I don't feel satisfied at the end of the journey, as if some goal was missed or not even noticed.
Still, I recommend Gem of the Ocean, and I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing it on stage.
January 10, 2014
I didn't enjoy this play as much as the other Wilson's play I've read. I feltas if too many themes were packed inside of it and the ending wasn't as strong as other endings such as Joe Turners Come Gone or Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. I enjoyed the character of Aunt Ester and the tidbits of history that came from the play about American Slavery. I would recommend this play to anyone who wants a quick read since the play is only 80 pages in total.
March 9, 2015
I decided to read the entire August Wilson Century Cycle after seeing the excellent American Masters special on PBS produced partly by WQED. I'd seen a couple plays live and was not blown away but they were student presentations. Reading this, the first one... wow. Knocked me out. Brought tears to my eyes. I would love to see this performed by great actors.
November 14, 2023
Gem of the Ocean is one of August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle plays. It is the first play if you are going in chronological order. The play's setting is 1904. Aunt Ester Tyler is the main character in this play, and is reputed to be 285 years old, but some people are doubtful that could be true. Aunt Ester is the spiritual leader of this group of people that the play centers on.
Times are tough in the African American community. Work is tough to come by and the main employer in this section of town, the local mill, is known for cheating its black workers and even causing the death of a local worker who was willing to stand up against their corruption. Aunt Ester lives with Black Mary, her protege as well as Eli, who protects the house. Eli has a friend named Solly Two Kings, who used to help people escape on the Underground Railroad. Solly has a sister living in Alabama that he would like to bring north. Remember that this is part of the period of the Great Migration north of blacks out of the south. There is also a young man (Mr. Citizen) who seeks help from Aunt Ester because he has a checkered past and wishes to be spiritually cleansed by Aunt Ester.
This is a moving play that can be read in a couple of sittings. It is emotionally satisfying and gives the reader pause about what crime means and the purpose of the law. A good starting point for Wilson's other nine plays in this cycle.
Times are tough in the African American community. Work is tough to come by and the main employer in this section of town, the local mill, is known for cheating its black workers and even causing the death of a local worker who was willing to stand up against their corruption. Aunt Ester lives with Black Mary, her protege as well as Eli, who protects the house. Eli has a friend named Solly Two Kings, who used to help people escape on the Underground Railroad. Solly has a sister living in Alabama that he would like to bring north. Remember that this is part of the period of the Great Migration north of blacks out of the south. There is also a young man (Mr. Citizen) who seeks help from Aunt Ester because he has a checkered past and wishes to be spiritually cleansed by Aunt Ester.
This is a moving play that can be read in a couple of sittings. It is emotionally satisfying and gives the reader pause about what crime means and the purpose of the law. A good starting point for Wilson's other nine plays in this cycle.
May 2, 2021
“Then how much you think you’re paper’s worth? You see, Mr. Caesar, you can put the law on paper but that don’t make it right. That piece of paper say I was property. Say anybody could buy or sell me. The law say I needed a piece of paper to say I was a free woman. But I didn’t need no piece of paper to tell me that.” —Aunt Esther
September 5, 2018
Plays are meant to be seen and not read, and I wish I had seen this one onstage. There is a dramatic moment when Citizen visits the City of Bones that must have been breathtaking when fully realized in front of an audience . . .
August Wilson wrote ten plays that took the African-American experience through the 20th century. Gem of the Ocean is set in 1904, and the leading character of Aunt Ester is billed as 285 years old, which puts her birth at 1619, when the first slaves arrived in Virginia. Make of that what you will.
The language is glorious. One longs to hear good actors speak it, with a good director making the meaning of Wilson's words as clear as possible. This is a remarkable read, and if your imagination works in terms of drama, a shattering experience.
Highly recommend.
August Wilson wrote ten plays that took the African-American experience through the 20th century. Gem of the Ocean is set in 1904, and the leading character of Aunt Ester is billed as 285 years old, which puts her birth at 1619, when the first slaves arrived in Virginia. Make of that what you will.
The language is glorious. One longs to hear good actors speak it, with a good director making the meaning of Wilson's words as clear as possible. This is a remarkable read, and if your imagination works in terms of drama, a shattering experience.
Highly recommend.
October 23, 2016
Another series I've been wanting to read this year is August Wilson's Century Cycle so here I am, starting chronologically with GEM OF THE OCEAN. In 1904, Citizen Barlow comes to the home of the healing matriarch Aunt Ester for absolution and redemption. What he encounters is an awakening to himself and the spirits of the African-Americans who came before him. Spiritual and full of sumptuous Wilson dialogue, the characters ponder the price of the freedom they have won and the responsibilities they owe to the past and the future.
July 20, 2017
I enjoyed books like this; it didn't take me long to finish this book. I wasn't on Goodreads to actually, leave a review but the storyline was good. I'm an August Wilson fan. Loved this story and Wilson's work. This book was an excellent introduction to the genius of the late August Wilson; he was a genius, an extraordinary playwright, and myth a writer who gives you a snapshot of the African-American experience in America. When I was in school, I was in performing arts so that is how I got into Wilson work.
February 12, 2015
I truly enjoyed this book. I was charmed by the characters and engrossed by the dialog. This is an excellent piece of work. This is my first read of the Century Cycle. I will reserve further comment (and perhaps alter my rating upward) after I have read more of the books in the cycle. Surely this book, and I would think the entire Century Cycle, should be required reading in any high school curriculum. gwg
July 31, 2008
I had a chance to see this performed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The director of the play hailed August Wilson as the 20th Centuries Shakespeare in the notes. Well, I can not disclaim this statement without reading more, which I am hoping to do soon. Oh by the way this reads easily without having seen the play.
March 16, 2017
After watching the film Fences in December 2016 I decided I would read the 10 plays by August Wilson that make up his Century Cycle. I began with this play which is the first (chronologically) in the series. I thought this play was good but I felt there was something missing from it. I enjoy reading the wisdom from Aunt Ester and Solly Two Kings.
August 25, 2017
This was an excellent read. I believe this is Wilson's first play in his decades series. His writing is so accessible.
August 24, 2023
The origin story of Wilson's ten-play American Century Cycle.
He wrote eight plays set in different decades of the 20th century before he went back and wrote this, the first in the chronology ( set in 1904). It has three characters who were adults during slavery, two of whom worked the Underground Railroad and one, Aunt Ester, who is the spiritual matriarch of the Black community in Pittsburgh. These are almost mythical characters, whose voices echo in the plays set in later decades.
It sets up many of the themes that resonate in Wilson's work, including the need to know the history of your people, and how you need to live right in order to die right. What Wilson means by that....you'll just have to find out for yourself by reading the play.
I will admit that it has one of the most dramatic set-pieces of Wilson's plays, the 'City of Bones' sequence. It also has one of his recurring themes, the need for a person to pick up the mantle and mission of one who has fallen. And the struggle continues...
He wrote eight plays set in different decades of the 20th century before he went back and wrote this, the first in the chronology ( set in 1904). It has three characters who were adults during slavery, two of whom worked the Underground Railroad and one, Aunt Ester, who is the spiritual matriarch of the Black community in Pittsburgh. These are almost mythical characters, whose voices echo in the plays set in later decades.
It sets up many of the themes that resonate in Wilson's work, including the need to know the history of your people, and how you need to live right in order to die right. What Wilson means by that....you'll just have to find out for yourself by reading the play.
I will admit that it has one of the most dramatic set-pieces of Wilson's plays, the 'City of Bones' sequence. It also has one of his recurring themes, the need for a person to pick up the mantle and mission of one who has fallen. And the struggle continues...
December 24, 2025
My first August Wilson and I'm not disappointed. This reminded me a lot of Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon in the ways it blends spiritualism and a magical journey. I had somewhat average opinions on that book as well, so it makes sense to me that I didn't love this one.
Gem of the Ocean takes place in 1904 in Pittsburgh. It's pre-Great Migration and talks about life for Black people in the North before that era. It's about the difference between generations of people who remember slavery and the generation immediately after, who are frustrated with not being afforded the life of freedom they were promised. Aunt Ester and Solly represent that old generation, while Black Mary and Citizen Barlow represent that new generation. Solly worked on the Underground Railroad and brought 62 people to Freedom. A young man named Citizen comes to Aunt Ester in search of guidance. When a mill catches on fire, a Black man is blamed for it and accused of stealing a bag of nails.
The play is deeply engaging, and it's a story that is very familiar within the Black canon because that has been our experience in America. Where it loses me as someone reading this play instead of watching it as intended is the spirituality and magical realism aspect. If I were seeing this, I would probably love it, but it doesn't translate the same over text. There are times when it gets a bit repetitive in the dialogue, but August Wilson was an American master. It's such a finely constructed play, I don't think anyone needs me to say that, though.
Gem of the Ocean takes place in 1904 in Pittsburgh. It's pre-Great Migration and talks about life for Black people in the North before that era. It's about the difference between generations of people who remember slavery and the generation immediately after, who are frustrated with not being afforded the life of freedom they were promised. Aunt Ester and Solly represent that old generation, while Black Mary and Citizen Barlow represent that new generation. Solly worked on the Underground Railroad and brought 62 people to Freedom. A young man named Citizen comes to Aunt Ester in search of guidance. When a mill catches on fire, a Black man is blamed for it and accused of stealing a bag of nails.
The play is deeply engaging, and it's a story that is very familiar within the Black canon because that has been our experience in America. Where it loses me as someone reading this play instead of watching it as intended is the spirituality and magical realism aspect. If I were seeing this, I would probably love it, but it doesn't translate the same over text. There are times when it gets a bit repetitive in the dialogue, but August Wilson was an American master. It's such a finely constructed play, I don't think anyone needs me to say that, though.
November 17, 2022
Loved this script. Would love to see this performed!
September 19, 2023
Moving / I felt the ocean tide, African and blues.
March 20, 2011
Chronologically, the first in August Wilson’s ten-play, century long exploration of the African American experience, Gem of the Ocean was published in 2003, just two years before the dramatist’s death at 60. The Gem of the Ocean is the name of an imaginary ship that assists individuals in a personal journey of spiritual rebirth. Aunt Ester, who may be centuries old, is the mystical source behind the ship. She resides in a house that once was a station on the Underground Railroad in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Eli, Aunt Ester’s housekeeper who always answers the door by saying, “This is a peaceful house,” and Solly Two Kings, Eli’s friend and Aunt Ester’s suitor, are also old, though not as old as Aunt Ester. In slavery days, which ended barely forty years before the play’s present of 1904, both men helped others escape north to Canada. Solly Two Kings (self-named in honor of Solomon and David) still makes trips into Alabama to help relatives escape from the terror and rigged poverty that sustains segregation.
Also in the house is Black Mary, cook and protégé of Aunt Ester, whose brother is Caesar Wilks, once someone who often found himself on the wrong side of the law but is now the law, the white authorities’ choice for peace-keeper in the Hill District. He is not popular among his neighbors because he is also a landlord and is unforgiving when it comes to shortfalls in rent payment and violent in his enforcement of the law and his own sense of authority. The drama begins with the arrival of Citizen Barlow, a troubled young man who arrives in a panic at Aunt Ester’s seeking an audience. There is a theft at the mill, a factory that is the only game in town and that handles its employees only marginally better than the way sharecroppers were handled in the South. Things quickly escalate as a young man dies and a strike follows. Citizen Barlow is somehow connected to the troubles and his conscience is under siege. Wilson sets the plot going immediately and the characters and circumstances quickly fill out.
The dialogue is often electric, like a great blues song or spiritual. The characters are strikingly real yet also heroic in a mythic sense, like the characters in Homer’s epics or, perhaps more to the point, the drama of Euripides. Aunt Ester could be simply older than anyone can remember or she might be literally 285 years old. Solly Two Kings might be a marginal striver or an American Odysseus. It’s a brilliant feat to pull off and if sustained throughout his career would put Wilson not just among the first rank of American playwrights but of world playwrights. Just as the works of Euripides say much about life in Ancient Greece, Wilson’s say much about African American life. And just as Euripides plays speak to things universal in the human condition so too do Wilson’s. “You on an adventure, Mr. Citizen,” Aunt Ester says early in the play, “I bet you didn’t know that. It’s all adventure.” I don’t yet have an informed opinion on the cycle having just read two to date and seen one other long ago, so I’ll reserve commenting on the cycle until I’m deeper into it. But to date, it’s been an amazing adventure.
Also in the house is Black Mary, cook and protégé of Aunt Ester, whose brother is Caesar Wilks, once someone who often found himself on the wrong side of the law but is now the law, the white authorities’ choice for peace-keeper in the Hill District. He is not popular among his neighbors because he is also a landlord and is unforgiving when it comes to shortfalls in rent payment and violent in his enforcement of the law and his own sense of authority. The drama begins with the arrival of Citizen Barlow, a troubled young man who arrives in a panic at Aunt Ester’s seeking an audience. There is a theft at the mill, a factory that is the only game in town and that handles its employees only marginally better than the way sharecroppers were handled in the South. Things quickly escalate as a young man dies and a strike follows. Citizen Barlow is somehow connected to the troubles and his conscience is under siege. Wilson sets the plot going immediately and the characters and circumstances quickly fill out.
The dialogue is often electric, like a great blues song or spiritual. The characters are strikingly real yet also heroic in a mythic sense, like the characters in Homer’s epics or, perhaps more to the point, the drama of Euripides. Aunt Ester could be simply older than anyone can remember or she might be literally 285 years old. Solly Two Kings might be a marginal striver or an American Odysseus. It’s a brilliant feat to pull off and if sustained throughout his career would put Wilson not just among the first rank of American playwrights but of world playwrights. Just as the works of Euripides say much about life in Ancient Greece, Wilson’s say much about African American life. And just as Euripides plays speak to things universal in the human condition so too do Wilson’s. “You on an adventure, Mr. Citizen,” Aunt Ester says early in the play, “I bet you didn’t know that. It’s all adventure.” I don’t yet have an informed opinion on the cycle having just read two to date and seen one other long ago, so I’ll reserve commenting on the cycle until I’m deeper into it. But to date, it’s been an amazing adventure.
April 7, 2008
Part of August Wilson's historic ten-play cycle, Gem of the Ocean is the story of Aunt Esther, a woman said to be over 300 years old with healing powers. Aunt Esther becomes a figure throughout Wilson's plays.
For those unfamiliar with Wilson's ten-play cycle, here's some background: Wilson, an extremely prolific playwright, made a commitment to write ten plays over a decade, each play corresponding to a decade in the lives and history of Black America - from Reconstruction to the early 2000s (Wilson passed away in 2005). For more info, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_W...
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruc...
Gem of the Ocean investigates justice, guilt, community, and the other worldly. Of the Wilson plays I've seen and read, Gem of the Ocean, has the most fully developed female characters - womyn who exist outside of their relationship to men. In part, I am sure, because it is Aunt Esther who own the supernatural spiritual gift in this play.
The central plot device of the play is the mystery of who stole a bucket of nails from the mill (capitalist power) and a visit to the city of bones. Giving away more than that will take away from the revelations in the play.
For those unfamiliar with Wilson's ten-play cycle, here's some background: Wilson, an extremely prolific playwright, made a commitment to write ten plays over a decade, each play corresponding to a decade in the lives and history of Black America - from Reconstruction to the early 2000s (Wilson passed away in 2005). For more info, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_W...
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruc...
Gem of the Ocean investigates justice, guilt, community, and the other worldly. Of the Wilson plays I've seen and read, Gem of the Ocean, has the most fully developed female characters - womyn who exist outside of their relationship to men. In part, I am sure, because it is Aunt Esther who own the supernatural spiritual gift in this play.
The central plot device of the play is the mystery of who stole a bucket of nails from the mill (capitalist power) and a visit to the city of bones. Giving away more than that will take away from the revelations in the play.
August 6, 2007
Gem of the Ocean is the first in August Wilson's ten play cycle that chronicles the African-American experience in the twentieth century. Wilson wrote one for each decade. Gem of the Ocean is set in 1904. Like most though not all of the plays in the cycle, Gem is set in Pittsburgh. Perhaps the most memorable moments in the play are when the various characters speak to the living memory of human bondage and the fresh feeling of new freedom. Many of the characters were born in slavery and despite Reconstruction, there is still a sense of urgency to escape from the South. While Gem is narrowly-focused and less far-reaching than some of Wilson's other plays, say Fences, it is still a passionate piece by one of the best dramatists America's ever produced.
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