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August Wilson

February 2025

  • a boy and a woman in a red coat and hat stand in front of other children

    From Blitz to Gladiator II: the Oscar-aiming films that missed this season

    This year’s nominations were led by smaller, less expected films like The Brutalist, Anora and Emilia Pérez, which left bigger bets in the cold

November 2024

  • The Piano Lesson. Skylar Smith as Maretha in The Piano Lesson

    The Piano Lesson review – handsome if stagey August Wilson adaptation

  • Danielle Deadwyler and John David Washington in The Piano Lesson.

    The Piano Lesson review – Washington family get stuck into August Wilson’s powerful play

September 2024

  • A still from The Piano Lesson

    First look review
    The Piano Lesson review – powerful yet patchy August Wilson drama

    Fantastic performances from Danielle Deadwyler and Samuel L Jackson enliven a soulful, if imbalanced, Netflix adaptation

August 2023

  • August Wilson in 2005

    ‘One of the great American stories’: the incredible life of playwright August Wilson

    The legendary playwright’s humble beginnings and Pulitzer-winning career are explored in the first authoritative biography of him

June 2023

  • Samira Wiley in Blues for an Alabama Sky.

    The best theatre to stream this month
    The best theatre to stream this month: Blues for An Alabama Sky, Macbeth and more

    Our roundup of drama to enjoy at home includes the National Theatre’s Pearl Cleage revival and David Tennant taking on the Scottish king for the first time

March 2023

  • Bert LaBonté and Zahra Newman in Sydney Theatre Company’s Fences, 2023. Photo: Daniel Boud ©

    Fences review – Australian debut of August Wilson play is a remarkable achievement

    Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company
    The STC’s production of the Pulitzer-winning play, about a flawed patriarch wrestling with self-destruction, is lead by a uniformly excellent cast

October 2022

  • Samuel L Jackson and John David Washington in The Piano Lesson.

    The Piano Lesson review – August Wilson revival hits a bum note

    John David Washington and Samuel L Jackson star in a tonally misjudged drama oddly played for awkward laughs

August 2022

  • Lester Purry as August Wilson in How I Learned What I Learned.

    From junkie poets to jailtime: August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned – review

    Lester Purry is at home performing the late playwright’s breezy yet purposeful collection of stories from his youth, in its European premiere

June 2022

  • ‘Imposing but sometimes over-deliberate’: Noma Dumezweni in A Doll’s House, Part 2

    The week in theatre: A Doll’s House, Part 2; Jitney – review

  • Tony Marshall and Wil Johnson.

    Jitney review – a taut, tense tale of Black injustice in 1970s America

October 2021

  • Jitney at Leeds Playhouse.

    Jitney review – August Wilson’s cab drivers do the talking

  • JITNEY – a gripping drama from Leeds Playhouse and Headlong

    Jitney review – August Wilson’s subtle dissection of the American dream

December 2020

  • Parasite

    Best films of 2020
    The 50 best films of 2020 in the UK: the full list

    It’s number one time, and it’s a picture from the beginning of the year that nothing else has quite eclipsed for wit, thrills and sheer watchability
  • Ma RAINEY<br>Ma Rainey

    'All they want is my voice': the real story of 'Mother of the Blues' Ma Rainey

    The subject of Oscar-tipped Netflix drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was a pioneering queer black singer who battled white producers for control
  • (From left) Chadwick Boseman as Levee, Glynn Turman as Toldeo, Michael Potts as Slow Drag and Colman Domingo as Cutler

    ‘Chadwick will be remembered as a hero’: Denzel Washington and Viola Davis on making Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

    The late actor’s final film role was in a blazing new adaptation of the August Wilson play. Cast and crew remember camaraderie and competition on an emotional shoot

November 2020

  • MA RAINEY S BLACK BOTTOM, US poster, from left: Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, 2020. © Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection<br>2D87GHY MA RAINEY S BLACK BOTTOM, US poster, from left: Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, 2020. © Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Ma Rainey's Black Bottom review – Chadwick Boseman glorious in his final film role

    The movie version of August Wilson’s story of the blues, starring Boseman and a tremendous Viola Davis, is a ferocious opera of passion and pain

October 2020

  • Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020): (L to R) Michael Potts as Slow Drag, Chadwick Boseman as Levee and Colman Domingo as Cutler. Cr. David Lee / Netflix

    Netflix releases trailer for Chadwick Boseman's final movie

    The late actor stars opposite Viola Davis in Oscar-tipped August Wilson adaptation Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

July 2020

  • Come, Been and Gone at the Barbican

    Tristram Kenton at the Guardian
    Caesar, Cilla and a superstar cast: Tristram Kenton's stage archive – in pictures

    Tristram Kenton’s photographs have accompanied reviews in the Guardian for more than 30 years. Ahead of a series of themed galleries, we open up his archive with 40 fabulous shots
    Gallery40

September 2019

  • Anita-Joy Uwajeh in Two Trains Running.

    Two Trains Running review – a menacing tale of black oppression

    This fine revival of August Wilson’s 1992 play finds seven people in 60s Pittsburgh struggling with a turbulent world
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