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<\/a>Cygnet guest director Jennifer L. Nelson hails from Washington, D.C., and along with associate director Lydia Fort, elicits excellent performances from her company of Southern California actors, many of whom are familiar from previous Wilson plays and readings and appearances in Cygnet\u2019s productions of \u201cFences,\u201d \u201cThe Piano Lesson\u201d and \u201cGem of the Ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n
In \u201cSeven Guitars,\u201d Ro Boddie, who appeared in Cygnet\u2019s \u201cStupid F**king Bird,\u201d portrays a songwriter named Floyd, who returns to the Hill District after serving time in a Chicago jail. His aims are to retrieve his hocked guitar and his reluctant woman, Vera (Yolanda Franklin). While in Chicago he laid down a hit recording, and the record company wants him to return and record more songs. He sees in this a chance to escape poverty and does whatever he can to bring about his future success, with tragic consequences.<\/p>\n Other characters who live in the two houses that are marvelously detailed by scenic designer Sean Fanning (action takes place in the backyards) are Vera\u2019s friend, Louise (Milena Phillips) who apparently owns one of the houses and rents a room to the mentally deranged Hedley (Antonio \u201cTJ\u201d Johnson), Canewell (Laurence Brown), Red (Grandison Phelps III) and Ruby (Yvonne) who is Vera\u2019s niece.<\/p>\n Threats of violence hang over this play from the opening scene as the characters struggle for subsistence and a modicum of dignity. \u201cKing Hedley II,\u201d which takes place 30 years later, is equally heartbreaking.<\/p>\n King Hedley II (Brown), Ruby\u2019s unborn child at the end of \u201cSeven Guitars,\u201d has just returned from seven years in prison. His father is dead. Ruby (Phillips), who became a big band singer after the close of \u201cSeven Guitars,\u201d has moved back to the Hill District to be near her King, who lives with his second wife, Tonya (Franklin). Hedley and his best friend Mister (Boddie) sell stolen refrigerators in the hope of going into business for themselves. A frequent visitor is Elmore (Phelps), a former boyfriend trying to reestablish himself in Ruby\u2019s life. Living next door is Stool Pigeon (Johnson), formerly known as Canewell, and right up the street lives Aunt Esther (unseen), the 366-year-old seer who is a presence in many of Wilson\u2019s plays.<\/p>\n Seeing the two plays in tandem reinforces the conclusion that nothing has changed, that the lives of these endearing Hill District characters will always be mired in despair and desperation \u2014 a bleak prognosis. Today, a miracle solution is still needed. Sadly, that\u2019s why these plays and these people are as if extracted from today\u2019s newspaper.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>