Jitney (Old Vic)

Men, epic ‘fro’s and not what you expect — this is the story of a Pittsburgh based gypsy cab company (advanced booking community taxi cab company as far as I could translate) in 1977. Gentrification and urban renewal is coming fast..and soon.

The first half I found disorientating — the acoustics were slightly soft; I was seriously distracted and enjoying the epic ‘fro’s, platforms, donkey jackets and flares. This was my first experience of an August ‘Fences’ Wilson play. But the explosive ending of this first half jolted me to my senses.

The second half I found much easier to engage with — it was more dramatic, tense, funnier and shockingly sad at the end.

Somewhat sit-commy as people fly in and out of doors to answer or avoid answering the phone; whilst an older guy cons a coffee out of a younger guy purely by pulling seniority and hierarchy; this play celebrates, at its core, men — their relationships, friendships, love and status; work and hard graft; the age and culture clashes between old and young men; respect and how they all cope when their livelihoods are threatened by city redevelopment forcing the company to relocate. The owner of the company also had everything he knows shattered when his son returns after serving a sentence in prison. Hints of the impact of wars — Vietnam and Korea — are mentioned too.

In a very funny, but very true moment, August Wilson turns the stereotype of the ‘feckless black man’ and ‘absent black father’ on the ground when one of the characters ‘Youngblood’ is challenged by his partner about his very public behaviour with this sister. (This situation has been stirred up by one of the older and somewhat creepy older men in the company). It turns out that he has been with his partner’s sister checking out houses to buy surprise his partner — out of love, not lechery or lust. Moral of the story is that women very much want and like to be consulted about the kind of house they want to live in — but there is respect and love, not abandonment. This is a man working multiple shifts, super hard — out of love for his partner and son, out of wanting good things for them. Although it does mean he took the family food budget money — triggering a conversation about how both his wife and he are trying to live differently to their families.

More widely August Wilson explores how city development and redevelopment, gentrification, urban regeneration can fail to consult, consider, include and involve those that its schemes are designed to help. A vital centrally located cab company linking black and brown people with the facilities and resources they need and are having to live away from (jobs, shops etc) is being forced to move and relocate due to the loss of its building for demolition. We are fully involved in the lives of five can drivers — Becker, Youngblood, Turnbo, Fielding and Doub. Becker (owner of the firm) goes into shock when his incarcerated son Booster reappears wanting to become a cab driver too. There are some horrible racist sexual politics here. Falsely accused of raping his white girlfriend by her father (which his consenting girlfriend affirms), Booster has murdered this former girlfriend shockingly on the steps of her home. Whilst Youngblood cheers Booster’s actions as justice served, others are shocked in the firm and want to assert what is right and peaceable. This was one of several really shocking moments, including the high emotion angry stand off between father and son (Becker’s fury at Booster at apparently causing his mother’s/Becker’s wife’s death, or a woman being harassed by an older man who tells her her partner is cheating on her with her sister (Turnbo and Rena).

Reading some play notes the detail of the characters didn’t come across fully — https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1350/jitney

Nor did the fantastic dancing fully relay the loss of owner Becker in his second job at a mill — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitney_(play)

I am thinking I missed a lot of plot now! Characterisation is great, the set very much conveys the era and the work they do; but the plot is in many parts really hard to follow. Not sure if it’s because of being in the unfamiliar (location, setting, time period) or soft acoustics if you sit higher up or what? Acting was great and energetic, and the loss of Becker really sad (as he had always been the peace maker seeking to love on the young and stop the quarrels and guns, apart from his attitude to his son ironically).