Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: August Wilson
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: August, 1911
- Setting: A boardinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Principal Characters: Seth Holly, Bertha Holly, Bynum Walker, Rutherford Selig, Jeremy Furlow, Herald Loomis, Zonia Loomis, Mattie Campbell, Martha Loomis
- Genres: Social realism, Drama
- Subjects: African Americans, Values, Family or family life, Husbands, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Wives, Magic or magicians, 1910’s, Hotels, motels, or inns, Separation, Songs or songwriters
- Locales: Pittsburgh, PA
The Play
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone opens on a Saturday morning in the kitchen of Seth Holly’s Pittsburgh boardinghouse. A skilled black tinsmith, Seth works nights for a white manufacturer. During the day, he makes his own pots and pans on the side and runs the boardinghouse with his wife, Bertha, dreaming of the day he might have his own manufacturing business.
On this Saturday the only lodgers are longtime resident Bynum Walker and a newcomer, Jeremy Furlow, who arrived two weeks earlier from North Carolina. Bynum is a “conjure man” or “root...
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