Joe Turner's Come and Gone: A Play in Two Acts

by August Wilson

Book Overview

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences comes Joe Turner's Come and Gone--Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.

"The glow accompanying August Wilson's place in contemporary American theater is fixed."--Toni Morrison

When Harold Loomis arrives at a black Pittsburgh boardinghouse after seven years' impressed labor on Joe Turner's chain gang, he...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452260094
• ISBN13: 9780452260092
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 94 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Search, identity and place after slavery

We lost a great playwright when August Wilson died a few years ago. And the greatest contribution to theatre was the chronology of 10 socially critical plays. August Wilson's plays contained a lot of dialogue, with great monologues, that drove the plight of African Americans. As Joe Turner is from the second decade of storytelling, you can begin with "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" which takes you to the world of black musicians in the 20s. Explore the chronology of August Wilson. Joe Turner's Come and Gone is about the disconnect from slavery and the search for their identity and place in America. The setting for "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" takes place in a boarding house where owners Seth and his wife operate with strict rules for the many transients. Joe Turner is NOT a character in the play, but a man who enslaved Harold Loomis, the main character, for years. Now Loomis tries to find his wife. This is a wonderful story with folklore, blues, spirituality, search and identity, which is metaphorically referred to as a "song". Other recommendations from the chronology Fences (The August Wilson Century Cycle) Two Trains Running (August Wilson Century Cycle) Jitney (August Wilson Century Cycle)......Rizzo

Don' Be Mad?

The title "Joe turner's Come & Gone symbolizes the American socialized system of oppression. Joe Turner is "the Man", Joe Turner is jail, and oppression. In this play, Herald Loomis has been detained by Joe Tuerner for seven years. Upon his release he searches to find his daughter and his wife while all along he has been searching for his inner self. Bynum Walker is a "Rootworker", one who practices unconventional spiritual worship. He lives in the boarding house an tells a story of a shiny man who has the secrete of life. This secret that he refers to, the secret of life, symbliizes the meaning of all in existance and most impoprtantly the knowledge of self. Joe Turner, "the Man", "the system", and American society have stripped, robbed,and raped the African American of self. It is this quest for idenity that Herald Loomis searches for within himself. This same quest is also found in all of the other characters in the play as well. Those that come to the boarding house are unstable and have not found their true selves. Even Seth and Bertha, the owners of the house also quest for their idenity. They have a better financial system than the others, but they are stil timid when they encounter white America. Seth constantly states the rules of the boarding house. He proclaims to operate a clean, safe, and respectful house. He feels that any other behavior would call too much attention to him and his home. Resulting in white American society to take oppresive actions against his achievements. Joe Turner's Come & Gone is an excellent concept that spiritually looks at the concept of knowing ones-self. August Willson's use of quest for idenity among all his characters allows the reader to unmistakenly find a connection with their own secret song to sing.

Jazz: the Center of the Black Experience

August Wilson, a Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright captures the essence of the African-American experience of slavery, migration, and the quest for an identity. These themes are part of the written slave narrative, from which the African-American literary tradition was born. In "Joe Turner's Come and Gone", Wilson brings the struggle of migration from the agricultural South to the Industrial North to light; set in the early 1900's when this great migration had just begun. The quest for self/an identity is one of the many scarring ramifications of slavery, and the result of namelessness. Wilson, is able to capture this central theme through religion, allegory, and music-Jazz/Blues. The quest for ones identity is rooted in the metaphorical use of the quest for a song. Songs mean different things for different people; they touch people in different ways. Why? Because each individual is unique, each individual has a song, an identity. With the historical culture of the African-American, and its connection to Music, this collaboration of rhythms and imagery proliferate the importance of this quest to life. Wilson, like Toni Morrison, offers his work as an illustration of the Blues Theory of Art-the idea that music has the ability to reach deep into the soul, and pull from it the raw feelings that may otherwise be unreachable. Music goes to the core of ones being, and helps the healing process. With Loomis, this was evident in the search for his song, his identity, it was all part of the restorative process, yet a consequence of America's greatest shame-Slavery. I must say that "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" in a wonderful way, using symbolism, folklore, and like Jazz, a non-written form of art, serves as an anchor and captures the heart of the African-American experience.

Joe Turner's Come and Gone excellent!

Wilson's play is set in the early 1920's in Pittsburgh. The play is about blacks migrating North and away from slave states towards better, or different opportunity. The action takes place in two acts at boarding house owned by Seth and his wife Bertha. The husband and wife duo have several guest who come and go each with a different story, or "song." The play has a jazz influence that makes the story line flow like a musical. Music and dance are the major form of communication for blacks and Wilson uses this mode of communication effectively throughout the play to bring his characters to life. Each person who encounters the boarding house of Seth and his wife are in search of their song, which is a synonym for their identity. The characters search for their song by trying to locate others through Selig, the people finder. The song symbolizes an identity that has been lost within years of slavery and continuing discrimination. The play shows us that a person's song is within and can never be found in the hands of someone else. Our song is inside of us. We are not to search for others or look for others to define ourselves. The search needs to begin within. This play was very magical in that it transformed music into a body. Two thumbs up!

Convincing

"Joe Turner's Come and Gone" is a play about African Americans migrating north in the 1911. The play takes place in Pittsburgh in a boarding house owned by a husband, Seth, and his wife, Bertha. It is the perfect location for Wilson's theme of separation. This boarding house has several guests and each one has their own philosophy, story, and search. I tried to determine which of those three were most important, but I have come to the conclusion that they are all equally important. Their stories are what link the characters' past to their present. Their respective philosophies explain their outlooks on life and their personalities. The search itself, in my opinion, is for identity - an identity that has been raped by the horrors of slavery. These horrors either directly or indirectly tore the main characters from their loved ones and I think Wilson is arguing that they lost their identities in the process. It is hard to review a play without giving away any plot. I believe the problem Wilson is trying to overcome is how to recover one's identity. Where does it come from? The characters in this play are unforgettable - especially the interaction between Bynum and Loomis. The ending is worth reading the play alone - it is so surprising, yet after the initial shock, it makes perfect sense without Wilson elaborating on it. Highly recommended.