By Jim Delmont
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Published Friday
January 16, 2004
Omaha stage, screen and TV actor John Beasley has invested a lot of time and energy in his John Beasley Theater & Workshop.
The cast of "Two Trains Running" includes, from left: Michael Beasley, Julie Adams, Tyrone Beasley, Cager Eaton Haynes, Charles Galloway Sr. and Kelcey Watson.
The payoff is evident in a splendid production of August Wilson 's "Two Trains Running," directed by Beasley's son, Tyrone.
Wilson opened this show at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1990 with Samuel L. Jackson and Laurence Fishburne. In 1992 the show went to Broadway, with a cast that included Fishburne, Roscoe Lee Browne and Al White.
Beasley's cast doesn't have to take a back seat to anyone. Full of juicy roles, "Two Trains Running" is as well acted and enjoyable as any show in this 2003-04 Omaha theater season.
The director, Tyrone Beasley, is superb as Sterling , a likable down-and-outer, fresh from prison, with empty pockets and an eye for Risa, the waitress at Memphis Lee's diner in a decaying Pittsburgh neighborhood, circa 1969.
Another Beasley son, Michael, is completely convincing in another lead role as Memphis , the exasperated owner of the restaurant, who faces a forced sale when the city takes over his property under eminent domain authority.
Wilson manages to present vivid characters, all with their own stories, but also to paint a background picture of African-American concerns in a Rust Belt urban area in the late '60s. Above all, the show is funny. The dialogue, which rings true, bubbles with mirth. The all-black cast tosses around the "N-word," but never with malice.
In fact, despite the humor, the play is permeated with a sad air, a sense of loss in a world dominated by gambling, poverty and good and bad luck. The two trains running are, symbolically, life and death. Across the street is a funeral parlor run by one of the few affluent folks around, Mr. West (forcefully and delightfully realized by Nate Butler). West, like some of the other characters, offers plenty of folk wisdom, though he is topped in that category by a restaurant regular, Holloway, a 65-year-old gent who rambles on in a slightly hurt, but not angry, fashion. Charles Galloway Sr. scores well in this part. The excellent cast also includes Kelcey Watson as Wolf, a numbers runner; Julie Adams as Risa; and Cager Eaton Haynes as the mentally disturbed Hambone.
The set by Chris Gray, in the LaFern Williams Center (South Omaha YMCA), is a little gem, complete with jukebox, counter and stools, front window and telephone booth. As eloquent about poverty as some of Eugene O'Neill's plays, this work, a gift from the Beasley family, is a gem. Don't miss it.
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