August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, the seventh in his ten-play Pittsburgh cycle, is a drama of thwarted hopes and stagnation. It is 1969. Malcolm X is dead. Martin Luther King is dead. And though only Malcolm is mentioned by name, the ghost of King hovers over the proceedings, contributing to the miasma of desperation.
Director Chuck Smith re-creates this existential nightmare exceedingly well. The pace of the play replicates the feel of daily life, communicating routine without letting us get bogged down in it. In fact, we’re fascinated.
Having superbly created a world stuck in the doldrums, he doesn’t seem to know how to bring his story to a close. He could have followed Eugene O’Neill’s example in The Iceman Cometh and shown how irredeemably trapped all his characters are. But for some reason Wilson tries to sweeten his medicine with a little hope at the end—a little romance, a symbolic victory against the man—and it feels false. Like he grafted a swatch from a different play onto the end of this one.
Through 4/19: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM Goodman Theatre 170 N. Dearborn 312-443-3800goodmantheatre.org $25-$79
