Seven Guitars (The Century Cycle #5), by August Wilson

I must say that as someone who reads plays a lot, it is somewhat surprising to me to think that this play is the first I have read by this particular playwright, who shares with me a deep personal connection to Western Pennsylvania as well as some notable and lamentable father issues.  While I would not consider myself the sort of person who could write authoritatively on the American black experience, what I find striking about this play is the way that the author manages to subtly discuss the injustices that blacks face not only from white society–though there is plenty of that shown here–but also from other blacks who find that violence and theft against other blacks is the best way for them to enjoy their own come up.  The playwright shows himself to be rather stern when he is dealing with the struggles of blacks to deal with the deck stacked against them, the struggles to have enduring relationships, and the ways that women and money put people at risk from others who want the cheddar without having done the work to get it.  This is a play with some surprising heft and power.

As appears to be common in this particular saga of plays, the play is two acts.  In the first act we see ourselves mostly dealing with a small community of blacks who are trying to record race records and profit from the postwar world where there are promises that are owed that have not been paid.  There are some relationship tensions, some quarrels over women, some struggles with the ease at which blacks were put into the workhouse for being aimless and in the wrong place at the wrong time, and most of the action focuses on Floyd Barton, a local blues guitarist who is on the verge of stardom, but who finds his rise threatened, and ultimately thwarted, by the violence that surrounds him.  Whether we see him try to get reimbursed for thirty days of forced labor, or trying to recover his guitar from the pawn shop as well as the instruments of his fellow bandmates so that they can perform together and cut some tracks, it seems as if the narrator and his friends are facing an unjust situation, and that is just the general struggle with the corrupt music industry and the justice system to deal with, much less the injustices faced within the black community by those who want to rise above poverty honestly and decently.

It is hard to know what sort of messages the author is trying to send with a play like that.  Being an outsider to the author’s perspective, it is hard to know for sure all that he is getting into.  That said, there are at least a few things that appear clear.  For one, the author appears to be noting that Floyd’s experiences are not unique, and that the difficulties of trying to earn a good living through the music industry while avoiding legal trouble and violence by envious and less hard-working blacks who want to steal what they do not have the wherewithal to earn are fatal for a great many people.  The author seems to be simultaneously pointing out the injustice of larger society in Pittsburgh and across the United States while also pointing out that a substantial amount of the trouble that blacks face comes from other blacks, and that with more unity and honor that blacks would find it easier to rise than is the case.  Help must come from within the community as well as from without in terms of a just society that allows all to rise to the extent of their good fortune and their God-given gifts.