Fences

August Wilson's play "Fences" is a classic American play that hasn't gotten into the repertoire in Australia largely due to the cast being entirely African-American (and there not being particularly many African-American performers in Australia). It gets a very faithful film adaptation both directed by and starring Denzel Washington - possibly a little too much so (he's a little indulgent in letting his character's speeches go longer than perhaps they need to).

In some ways this is Wilson bouncing up against the classic 50's American drama (particularly "Death of a Salesman" - there's a riff on being "well liked", a fair bit of football, a secret mistress and a final funeral scene) - it's a family drama that uses that lens to say something bigger about the human experience - in this case, the effects of living while black through the first half of the twentieth century on a man and how the wounds he's suffered pass onto his son and family. Troy, our lead, is not entirely a sympathetic character - he's a blowhard and a bit of a bully - but there's a stubborn integrity to him that keeps us engaged, even as it becomes increasingly obvious how compromised he is. If Willy Loman is the White American dream of achievement and success, Troy Maxon is the black dream of merely being able to survive, keeping your head down because the big dreams hurt too much when they're shattered.

Viola Davis is the only performer really allowed to stand toe-to-toe with Washington and she absolutely does, in a performance of power and integrity. The remaining performances have their moments, but this is a production that rises and falls on Washington, and while there's a little actor's vanity in keeping the speeches at full length, there's certainly an ability to let his character be weak and fallible (and indeed, at one point, noticeably paunchy in the stomach).

I don't know that this entirely succeeds in doing the magical leap from theatre to film but it's a damn good capturing of the play anyway and well worth watching.