Joe Turner’s Come and Gone – 04 April 2026

August Wilson is a literary genius, and his true vision and intention comes through the most in his less produced plays. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is one such play, as it does not shy away from speaking directly and openly about how the end of slavery was not the end of cruelty towards African Americans. In no uncertain terms, this play zeroes in on how white people deliberately kept Black people down. I would hazard a guess at this show being less produced than other August Wilson works because it has moments that make white people uncomfortable and moments that Black audience members can laugh at that white audience members cannot. Sitting in the theater with this discomfort is an important act of solidarity, support, and acknowledgment that we can’t talk about equality without acknowledging the realities of inequality.

The show takes place in a boarding house, with the feel of a transitional environment—nobody but the couple running it see the place as a permanent home. The other characters are binders who bind people together and finders who help people locate their lost loved ones and lone wanderers looking for love and desperate people seeking a window to the past. All of these characters are in various states of having their lives ripped apart; some are doing the ripping themselves. Whether one believes in the spiritual dimension or not, it is comfortable for some to believe that there is a higher power and a higher purpose wanting them to continue living through their pain.

The first act of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone focuses on introducing the characters and planting the seeds of what is to come. Seth Holly (Cedric the Entertainer) and Bertha Holly (Taraji P. Henson) run a hustling, bustling boarding home. Both give wonderfully nuanced performances that keep the place alive. The mysticism lies with Bynam Walker (Ruben Santiago-Hudson), who binds people together and the finder Rutherford Selig (Bradley Stryker), whose abilities to find African Americans date back to prior generations of men in his family who were slave traders; at one point he states, “My great granddaddy used to bring Nigras across the ocean on ships. … My daddy, rest his soul, used to find runaway slaves for the plantation bosses…. After Abraham Lincoln give you all Nigras your freedom papers and with you all looking all over for each other…we started finding Nigras for Nigras.” Boarding house guest Herald Loomis (Joshua Boone) is willing to put all of this aside if Selig can help him find his long lost wife, Martha Loomis (Abigail Onwunali), but he does remember it and vitriolic feelings surface when he has his breakdown later on. The other characters also accept this about Selig, and, for Seth Holly, who works for him, everything remains business as usual. This moment, coupled with the concept of Joe Turner literally stealing men to turn into seven year indentured servants are Wilson’s chilling reminders that slavery did not end with the end of slavery and that subverting power structures takes more than a signed agreement.

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone discusses some hard truths of the African American experience. Set in 1911, the show thematically centers on free will and choice—the choice to wait for someone, the choice to stay with someone, and the choice to leave someone behind—if one is empowered enough to understand their choices. The design elements perfectly support the story without upstaging the characters. Despite the seriousness of the themes, it has good moments of levity and wit. This production has a lot of heart and soul, and the actors imbibe it with life and meaning. This show is also part of changing the landscape of what Broadway ticket holders look like—I am pleased to report that the majority of the audience at the performance I attended was BIPOC individuals, which is a huge achievement for a Broadway show.

I did not attend this performance on a press pass.