"Two Trains Running" Review

With convincing detail, BOTTG has turned their stage into a run-down neighborhood diner in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1969. From this setting, “Two Trains Running” serves up a slice-of-life portrait of black Americans in the economically depressed urban neighborhood of the playwright’s youth.

“Two Trains Running” was selected in part because it’s meaningful, it’s universal. And I think we did a pretty good job!” ~ Dyanne Vojvoda, BOTTG Publicist

Through conversations between a handful of regulars at the diner, the characters and their stories are revealed. There’s Memphis (Clinton Vidal*) the diner’s owner, Risa (Chelsea Bearce and Cierra Ford) the waitress, Wolf (George Simmons) the bookie, Holloway (Obdulio Butler) the local philosopher, Sterling (Errick Thompson) an ex-con, West (Trevor Lawrence) the undertaker, and the mentally challenged Hambone (Benny Smith).

“I want my ham!”, Hambone shouts to the annoyance of the diner’s owner, “He gonna give me my ham!” These two lines, repeated often, make up the bulk of Hambone’s dialogue and embody a central and unifying theme of the play.

Ten years before, Hambone had agreed to paint the butcher’s fence in exchange for a ham. The work done, the butcher offered a chicken instead. Hambone refused the chicken, refused to settle for less than his due. With unrelenting persistence, Hambone went to the butcher every morning, for nearly a decade, and asked for his ham. Every day he was refused.

Risa, the waitress who doesn’t serve sugar for her customers’ coffee unless they specifically request it and deliberately scarred her legs in order to discourage men’s sexual advances, shows empathy for the persistent but mentally disturbed Hambone. With quiet defiance, she ignores the objections of her boss, Memphis, and makes sure Hambone is fed and clothed.

Through conversation and story, characters reveal their individual strategies for making a living, maintaining dignity, and winning in a society that seems set on taking advantage of them and short changing them of what they deserve.

By play’s end, Hambone and his struggle have become the unifying force at the heart of this eclectic diner community.

Wilson may have intended Hambone’s story as a metaphor for the black American’s experience in white America. But the metaphor extends equally to any group unjustly exploited and repeatedly denied the rights and privileges they are due.

Come out and catch some brilliant performances. In particular, Equity Actor Clinton Vidal holds the ensemble together with an admirable command of his character Memphis. “He’s a storyteller,” said Vidal of Memphis, “and trying to motivate some of that, just trying to learn the line load…very challenging to get a hold of. Deceptively challenging.”

Also of mention, Errick Thompson offers up an impressive range of emotion as Sterling, the ex-con; Chelsea Bearce’s adds just the right amount of humor to her body language and facial expression to communicate her character’s unspoken responses; and Trevor Lawrence adds a hauntingly controlled presence as West the undertaker.

But it’s the sum of the whole, the story, the direction, the actors, the relationships between the characters, and that fabulous set, with the original 1961 jukebox and the murals through the diner’s windows, that makes this piece worth seeing.

“It was a team effort, an ensemble pieceTerrence (Tyrie Ivory) is an excellent director who understands the material.” ~ Clinton Vidal, Equity Actor

Catch a performance of this well produced local production through November 7
at the historic BDES Hall, 140 West J Street, Benicia, CA. 707-746-1269
General Admission $20, Seniors & Students with ID $18
$35 Special Show & Dinner Deal @ NINE O SEVEN GRILL. Dinner Deal Reservations and Online Ticket Sales @www.beniciaoldtowntheatregroup.com Tickets are also available at the door or through the Benicia Chamber of Commerce.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association