Fences (Sydney Theatre Company) ★★★★1/2

Written by August Wilson. Australian Premiere. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf Theatre. 25 Mar – 6 May, 2023.

Sydney Theatre Company has struck a vein of precious gems with its presentation of overlooked African-American classics. First a dynamic production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in Sun, and now August Wilson’s tale of generational struggle, Fences. 

Troy Maxson (Bert LaBonté) is a fighter and a survivor. Overcoming the struggles of his past to build a life and raise, feed and house a family. He believes in right and wrong because he has been on both sides and learned his lessons the hard way. A loyal friend, a stern father, a loving husband, he was a baseball star in his youth but his ambitions were squashed by racism, or so he believes. His wife Rose (a luminous Zahra Newman) has asked him to build a fence around their small yard. His 17 year old son Cory (Darius Williams) has become something of a rising football star with his mother’s blessing but against his father’s wishes. As Cory defies his father in pursuit of his own dream, Troy’s seemingly impervious exterior starts to peel away to reveal the cracks underneath. 

Jeremy Allen has created a set so detailed and immersive it is easy to slip into this world of 1950s Pittsburg. A small porch, overlooking a bare yard sandwiched between other houses. A tree rises into the rafters of the Wharf 1 theatre – it’s a set so tactile you want to run your hand over the brickwork and bark. Beautiful and subtle lighting by Verity Hampson brings these textures to life. Director Shari Sebbens has created a production that feels rich and lived in. 

I can’t heap enough praise on the cast, especially the three leads of LaBonté, Newman and Williams. This family feels real with all the nuance required to give us a sense of history, love and long held aggressions. You completely believe the depth of their emotions, and their eventual outbursts ring with a sense of long delayed catharsis. 

And praise the theatre gods, the accents are flawless! Nothing pulls me out of a production more than bad accent work, or worse, actors who are so distracted by their accents they fail to give anything more than a surface performance (it’s like the part of their brain that usually does the emotional subtext gets tied up focusing on getting the voice right). Here, there is nothing to get in the way of the audience investing in the reality of this story. The presentation is completely immersive.

I referred to these works as “African-American classics” but that feels like calling King Lear  “a White British Classic” and brushing past the universality of the story. Troy’s best friend Jim (Markus Hamilton) ponders whether Rose wants a fence to keep people out, or to keep people in – the dual impulses of every parent. Troy is a middle-aged man whose mistrust of the world, that once helped him prosper, is now starting to destroy all he’s achieved. He risks crushing his own son’s dreams, based on his own history, unable to accept that the world may have moved on. Cory is a young man with big dreams, angry at being held back by the fears of an older generation. These stories work for everyone.

Fences is a Pulitzer Prize winner for a reason, and I sincerely hope Sydney Theatre Co keep bringing these towerinly great works to the stage for us to enjoy. Go see it now. You may not get a production of Fences this good for a very long time.