First Look: Fences

August Wilson’s Prominent Stage Play Gets the Film Treatment and Chronicles the Struggles of Black Life in the 1950s

- Deesha Philyaw

This past spring, vintage cars lined the streets of Pittsburgh’s Hill District and actors donned 1950s clothing. Strategically placed advertising from a bygone era completed the neighborhood’s transformation for the film adaptation of Fences, the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning play written by the Hill’s most famous native son, August Wilson.

Fences is the sixth play in Wilson’s The American Century Cycle, a collection of 10 plays chronicling the joys and struggles of African-American life, with one play set in each decade of the 20th century. Nine of the plays are set in the Hill. The highs and lows of Troy Maxson, a garbage collector and former Negro League baseball player, are at the heart of the story. Troy was a standout player, but by the time Major League Baseball was integrated, he was too old to play. His unfulfilled ambitions and frustration affect the people around him, including his devoted wife, Rose, and their son, Cory. Rounding out the cast of characters are Bono, Troy’s best friend; Lyons, Troy’s son from a previous relationship; and Troy’s brother Gabriel, a mentally disabled World War II veteran.