Joe Turner's Come and Gone

The Belasco Theatre has been showing August Wilson's play for some years; Mr. Wilson died in 2003, I believe, and I hear his estate reluctantly permitted a white man to continue as director after his death, against his explicit desires. But the show was successful as it was, and royalty income is hard to pass by....

This play concerns the aftermath, fifty years on, of slavery and liberation. It essentially shows that injustice and oppression cause persistent emotional damage of a nature that hinders its recipients from having effective, comfortable interpersonal relationships.

The specific injustices shown in this play are the continuing unfairnesses that accompany racism and the consequence to one couple and their daughter of the father having been impressed into forced labor for seven years.

It would be a misconception to think that these consequences are purely limited to racism...