Did Critics Think August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean is a Jewel?
Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
Eric Grode in his Broadway.com Review: "It's easy to forget how good August Wilson is at shooting the breeze, something he does often in the first act of the intermittently dazzling but deeply flawed Gem of the Ocean… By the end, though, Gem--the earliest in the cycle chronologically, set in 1904 Pittsburgh--concerns itself less with chewing the fat and more with summoning the gods. This is, to put it mildly, an unwise decision. Wilson and director Kenny Leon end up scrambling to reconcile the characters' workaday concerns with the play's ungainly dip into magical realism, and the damage is irreparable."
Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "That it has opened should be a relief to anyone concerned with serious American drama. And theatergoers who have followed Mr. Wilson's career will find in his Gem a touchstone for everything else he has written. But Gem is also the least dramatically involving of his plays. Directed by Kenny Leon, with a strong cast led by Phylicia Rashad, Gem has passages of transporting beauty. But it is the first of Mr. Wilson's dramas to lack people whose flesh feels as palpable as your own. The characters in Gem, who include a former slave who is some 280 years old, are not exactly cardboard. They are more like pieces of parchment on which legends of the past and maps to the future have been drawn in swooping strokes of ink."
Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "In Wilson's canon it most nearly resembles Joe Turner's Come and Gone, which makes sense, given that it is set in 1904, a decade before the earlier play. Both plays rely on ritual more than those later in the cycle. They also depend more than the others on pure theatricality. Here, under Kenny Leon's astonishing direction, that sense of theater, especially in the exorcism scene, is extraordinary… The authority she [Aunt Ester] exerts has less to do with these externals than Rashad's ability to project a profound mixture of sadness and mystical wisdom. It is a monumental portrayal. So is Anthony Chisholm's performance as the heroic Solly, leavening his sense of power with sly humor. John Earl Jelks makes a sensational debut as Citizen, conveying anguish, innocent wonder and--ultimately great strength on his odyssey from moral confusion to commitment to a newly found community. Lisagay Hamilton has a similar strength as Aunt Ester's assistant."
David Rooney of Variety: "But this new work arrives with much to admire, shorn of a full half-hour since its preem, its structural flaws veiled by the compassion, humor, lyrical majesty and vivid characters that make the playwright such a distinctive voice. And the sterling cast sure doesn't hurt. While it's not at the level of Wilson's best writing, like Fences and Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Gem is a more seamless blend of realism and mysticism than some of his recent work. The first act meanders too unhurriedly through scene-setting and character establishment, but the enthralling second-act fireworks are bracingly operatic and moving."
Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "This haunting play, the latest in Wilson's decade-by-decade look at the black experience in 20th century America, is an impressive achievement. The production, directed with a sure hand by Kenny Leon, is rich in character and story. What's more, it's performed with a fierce commitment by a fine company of actors, led by a commanding Phylicia Rashad, who plays the matriarchal Aunt Ester… Although it is the ninth play in the cycle to be written, Gem of the Ocean, is the cycle's curtain raiser, the opening act for an achievement that is staggering in its ambition and scope. Now, there is only one more play to go--Radio Golf… Let's hope it is as mesmerizing as Gem of the Ocean."
Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "The force of Wilson's humanism and the lyrical majesty of his writing transcend whatever doubts or inconsistencies may pop up… Director Kenny Leon, who worked with Rashad in A Raisin in the Sun, hasn't yet developed as much of an ear for the musicality of Wilson's language as the playwright's veteran collaborator, Marion McClinton. The actors nonetheless deliver vital, finely tuned performances, from John Earl Jelks' vigorous Barlow to LisaGay Hamilton's sharp but tender Mary. Anthony Chisholm captures both Solly's world-weariness and his indomitability, and Ruben Santiago-Hudson plays Mary's brother Caesar, the power-drunk local constable, with dazzling wit. Granted, Caesar's ability to amuse wanes as he goes after the more sympathetic characters, including Ester. I wouldn't want to be the man who defies Aunt Ester--not any more than I'd wish to be one of the women challenging Rashad at next year's Tony Awards."
Linda Winer of Newsday: "Ruben Santiago-Hudson is a dazzling whirlwind of self-justification as Caesar, who explains his rise to power in a monologue that's almost a play in itself. Eugene Lee protects the sanctity of the house with no-nonsense serenity. Almost as central as Aunt Ester is Solly Two Kings--played with majesty and delicate humor by Wilson veteran Anthony Chisholm… Like that most haunting of Wilson plays, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, this one also has genuine music--spellbinding evocations of faraway lands that, in this case, actually are used to bind spells. Rashad, who won the Tony Award last season in Leon's production of A Raisin in the Sun, is turning out to be one of the major theater artists of our time… It is inconceivable that Gem of the Ocean almost did not make it to Broadway because a major investor pulled out at the last minute. Wilson, who won Pulitzer Prizes for his most direct works Fences and The Piano Lesson, has just one play left before completing this unprecedented work. If someone doesn't find the money and guts to produce all 10 as a festival, the theater is in even more trouble than we thought."