“Jitney” is the seventh play in August Wilson’s ten play cycle that takes place in the Hill District of Pittsburgh in the 1970’s.  It tells the story of the Black community, its hardships in facing prejudice, and its triumphs of the human will.  “Jitney” won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best play in 2000 being produced on Broadway 21 years after it was written.  It returned for a Broadway revival in 2017 winning the Tony and Drama Desk awards for best revival.

All the action takes place in the office of the jitney operation owned by Becker and manned by Youngblood, Turnbo, Fielding, and Doub, the drivers.  Tensions among the group abound as issues of housing, marital fidelity, poverty, alcoholism, PTSD from Korea and VietNam,  and manhood get played out as they await calls for rides.  Some of the guys are old and beaten down. One, Youngblood, is young and full of hot blood eager to provide for his girl and child, “I’m ready if everybody else is. If not, I’ll find a job somewhere. Go to school. Raise my family. Do whatever I have to. You know.”

Another major story line is the appearance of Becker’s son, Booster released from the penitentiary after serving 20 years for murdering his white girlfriend.  Becker hasn’t visited during all that time and the reunion is tense and difficult.

This is not a feel good play or an easy one to read. The depths of poverty and the hopelessness it can lead to pervade the action.  Urban renewal is the big villain as neigborhoods are boarded up and promises to rebuild homes, businesses, and parks go unfufilled.  The toll on Pittsburgh’s Black citizens is enormous, but as the play ends there is a small sign of hope.

Viola Davis had this to say about Wilson’s plays: “Wilson’s writing captures our humor, our vulnerabilities, our tragedies, our trauma. And he humanizes us. And he allows us to talk.”, and Denzel Washington has already brought three of Wilson’s plays to the movie screen and is committed to finishing the full cycle.