Eugene Lee (Grace Toulotte)
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson spent his 60 years on Earth amassing wisdom, and the show How I Learned What I Learned, now at Round House Theatre, weaves together those pearls in a series of stories told to the audience.
Originally conceived by Wilson and former collaborator Todd Kreidler, the play first came to life as a one-man show that Wilson only got one chance to perform.
After Wilson’s death in 2005, Kriedler refined the work, drawing on Wilson’s own words and writing (and even directing this production himself). The result is a series of poignant vignettes, largely exploring the playwright’s early life in impoverished black Pittsburgh and the people there who would shape his life to come.
The rich fabric of Wilson’s world is dotted with cameos, and each person described manages to have a profound impact on the audience, even in their brief “appearances”.
There’s the man who couldn’t read but would literally give you the jacket off his back, and go find a new one for himself. There’s the dangerous, alluring waitress who nearly costs Wilson his life after only three months of dating, courtesy of a bar confrontation with her husband. And there are the many figures who unjustly wronged the playwright during his early life in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, whether it be the toy shop owner who assumed he would steal on his first day or the bank teller who couldn’t quite believe the man in front of her would have earned the right to cash a $750 check.
Guiding us through all these adventures and indignities is actor Eugene Lee as Wilson. He tells Wilson’s story against a backdrop of layers and layers of book pages (with a trash-ridden lot in the foreground of the stage), papers lighting up to type up the title of each mini-story in the play.
The performer has an easygoing, affable presence throughout the play, but truly comes to life as he recounts the unyielding way Wilson stood up to disrespect and discrimination. The profound words of Wilson’s steely mother, Daisy, which find appropriate ways of expressing themselves throughout the work, linger after the play is finished.
“Something is not always better than nothing.” Even through a proxy, experiencing such an unbreakable spirit is an inspiring way to spend an evening in a year that has mostly bred cynicism.
August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned runs through July 2 at Round House Bethesda. $45-$65. Buy tickets here.
