Two Trains Running

Two Trains Running by August Wilson is a reprint published by Penguin in January 1993. This 128-page play presents a compelling narrative set in Pittsburgh during 1969, focusing on the regulars of Memphis Lee’s restaurant as they navigate the challenges of a rapidly changing world. The characters grapple with the impending demolition of their diner, a symbol of their community, while embodying resilience and hope amidst the turbulence of urban renewal.
Readers will find a rich exploration of the African American experience through Wilson’s insightful portrayal of everyday lives against the backdrop of significant societal changes. The play delves into themes of struggle, perseverance, and the enduring spirit of a community facing displacement. With its vivid characterizations and authentic dialogue, Two Trains Running offers a poignant reflection on the intersection of personal and collective histories in American drama.
Official synopsis Publisher
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano Lesson comes a “vivid and uplifting” (Time) play about unsung men and women who are anything but ordinary.
August Wilson established himself as one of our most distinguished playwrights with his insightful, probing, and evocative portraits of Black America and the African American experience in the twentieth century. With the mesmerizing Two Trains Running, he crafted what Time magazine called “his most mature work to date.”
It is Pittsburgh, 1969, and the regulars of Memphis Lee’s restaurant are struggling to cope with the turbulence of a world that is changing rapidly around them and fighting back when they can. The diner is scheduled to be torn down, a casualty of the city’s renovation project that is sweeping away the buildings of a community, but not its spirit. For just as sure as an inexorable future looms right around the corner, these people of “loud voices and big hearts” continue to search, to father, to persevere, to hope. With compassion, humor, and a superb sense of place and time, Wilson paints a vivid portrait of everyday lives in the shadow of great events.
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