Director Chuck Smith’s production runs through May 19, 2024

JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE conveys the search for Black American identity among the inhabitants of Seth and Bertha Holly’s boarding house in 1911 Pittsburgh. Chronologically, it’s the second play in Wilson’s Twentieth Century Cycle (though, admittedly, the first this critic has seen on stage!), and it’s a layered character study within Wilson’s body of work. Director Chuck Smith has a long history of championing and producing Wilson’s work at the Goodman and here he leads a talented Chicago cast who weave artfully between the play’s moments of grounded reality and eerie mysticism and spirituality. Perhaps that’s one of the most striking parts of this play: In the characters’ search for identity, they must reckon with the hauntings of their pasts. 

While JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE is truly an ensemble piece, the play’s central drama focuses on boarding house inhabitant Herald Loomis (A.C. Smith, commanding and eerie) who has arrived with his young daughter Zonia (Kylah Renee Jones) in tow as he searches for his wife Martha (Shariba Rivers, always excellent and with quiet power). After escaping seven years of illegal enslavement under bounty hunter Joe Turner, Herald aims to reunite with his wife as a form of closure along his path to rebuilding his life. That tension mirrors the identity conflicts of many of the other boarding house residents, who find themselves trying to reconcile life in the North with their families’ histories of slavery in the South. And Wilson’s text beautifully expresses, of course, that being free doesn’t necessarily always feel like freedom.

The play is a finely honed study of character and identity, but it’s also surprisingly humorous (even if the first act is overly long.) As Seth, Dexter Zollicoffer alternates between consternation and buoyancy; Seth’s not a man to be trifled with, but he also takes particular delight in a game of dominoes alongside Bynum Walker (Tim Rhoze), who has a flair for mysticism. Rhoze plays up Bynum’s eccentricities as a kind of town healer but never makes him into a stereotype. Anthony Fleming III offers light-hearted comic relief as Jeremy Furlow, who longs to play his guitar instead of spending his days performing manual labor — and who soon reveals himself to be the resident ladies’ man at the boarding house. Nambi E. Kelley is gentle and a bit frazzled as Mattie Cunningham, who longs to be a mother and to be reunited with her partner Jack who walked out on her. By contrast, Molly Cunningham (Krystel V. McNeil) has a remarkably contemporary sensibility when it comes to dating and men: She can’t really be bothered, and she’s more interested in forging her own path ahead. Bertha (TayLar) graciously holds down the fort at the boarding house, delighting residents with her homemade biscuits and fried chicken. As Rutherford Selig, Gary Houston makes an affable-but-mysterious traveling salesman (and possible con man). But while Smith plays Herald as hardened and chilling, Houston’s take on his role is more consciously opaque but still lighthearted; it’s a compelling contrast. Youngest cast members Jones and Harper Anthony have a lovely rapport as Zonia and neighborhood kid Reuben Mercer, even if their interactions are purely tangential to the play’s overall themes and narrative. 

The Goodman’s JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE is overall an opportunity to see a fantastic Chicago ensemble skillfully perform one of Wilson’s iconic plays. 

JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE runs through May 19 in the Albert Theatre at Goodman Theatre, 170 North Dearborn. Tickets are $25-$90.

Visit goodmantheatre.org/joe for tickets.

Photo Credit: Liz Lauren

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