Photo by Michael Brosilow
Milwaukee Rep 'Seven Guitars'
Dimonte Henning, Bryan Bentley and Kevin Brown in the Milwaukee Rep's 'Seven Guitars'.
Pittsburgh in the 1940s. Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton is an aspiring blues guitarist and singer who has a hit record while he’s serving a 90-day sentence. He now has a second chance at stardom when a Chicago-based record company offers him a contract to record. Problem is, Floyd never gets that second chance in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars which opened at the Milwaukee Rep last weekend.
At play’s start—and end—Floyd is dead. And how he got there is what Seven Guitars explores in this stellar production featuring a top-notch cast, skillfully directed by Ron OJ Parson.
This is, after all, 20th century America: black people are arrested for no legitimate reason, as Floyd and his friends learn the hard way and try to overcome and survive. But the odds are impossibly stacked against them.
Wilson’s writing is at its zenith, sounding as naturalistic yet eloquent, exuding a a majestic beauty, Seven Guitars reminds us of why Wilson is one the most important playwrights of the 20th century. This is the Rep’s eighth production of the esteemed playwright’s 10-play American Century Cycle and it challenges our 21st century sensibilities while reminding us: just how much has changed since then?
Seven Guitars is told in flashbacks as we watch Floyd return to the Pittsburgh rooming house after his incarceration. He’s determined to recapture the love of his estranged Vera (Kiera Bunch), who he abandoned for another woman at his initial attempt to gain stardom. Dimonte Henning’s Floyd is all macho swagger and fast talker, yet there’s an underlying vulnerability—and explosive anger—to his Floyd that makes his every move riveting to watch, especially especially when coupled with Bunch’s moving portrayal of the aggrieved Vera. His song, “It’s Alright” (ironic since nothing is), has become a hit and he’s determined to make it back to Chicago to record again.
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These two are surrounded by the rooming house manager and friend, Louise (Marsha Estell); Louise’s niece, Ruby (Sarah Bakari); the Scripture spouting neighbor Hedley (Kevin Brown), friends Red (Bryant Bentley); and Floyd’s sideman, Canewell (Vincent Jordan). The cast works so well together—and separately—that we are immediately in vested in their comings and goings as they face challenge after challenge is simply trying to exist. Each actor expertly brings a three-dimensional aspect to who they are and creates a synergy that drive this powerful storyline.
No one more so than Floyd, as the domino effect of trying to raise money to get his guitar out of the pawn shop and go to Chicago stymies him at every step of the way. Wilson’s dialogue is so attuned to these characters’ lives that the events of everyday life leading up to the explosive climax seem as normal as the world around them. But it is a world where they are the outsiders and forced to remain so—all based on the color of their skin.
Death, however, is the great equalizer that binds us all in Seven Guitars. Everybody’s “time” eventually comes. And for Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, once the music ends, all that remains are the sounds of silence.
Seven Guitars runs through April 2 in the Quadracci Powerhouse. Run time: three hours, 15 minutes including one intermission. Recommended for ages 14 and up. For more information, call the Rep Box Office: 414-224-1761, or visit milwaukeerep.com.
