Gem of the Ocean

The first play in August Wilson's Century Cycle, his epic dramatisation of the African American experience in the twentieth century.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1904. Aunt Esther, the 285-year-old fiery matriarch of 1839 Wylie Avenue, sets Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama, on a soaring, lyrical journey of spiritual awakening.

This Theatre Communications Group edition includes a foreword by Phylicia Rashad, who created the role of Aunt Ester in the play's Broadway run.

'August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean is like a great and mighty ship riding the waves of history' Phylicia Rashad, from her Foreword