BOLT FROM THE BLUES
The course of Denzel Washington’s life changed (not for the first time; probably not for the last) in 2014.
He had just finished a performance of Raisin In The Sun on Broadway, when he received a visitor backstage. It was Constanza Wilson, widow of the great African-American playwright, and Washington’s old friend, August Wilson. She had a request for him. “She said, ‘The Estate would like you to take care of August Wilson’s plays, and turn them into films, if you’re interested,’” recalls Washington. He didn’t mull over his answer for very long. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’m just the man for the job.’” From that moment on, Washington had a new purpose in life: to protect August Wilson’s most august works.
Wilson, who died in 2005, is perhaps the greatest chronicler of the African-American experience, specifically with a collection of ten plays known as the Century Cycle (each one is set in a different decade). It was with these plays, in particular, that Washington found himself entrusted, and he didn’t hang around. He started in 2016, producing, directing and starring in Fences , a work he knew intimately, having starred in the Broadway revival in 2010. The film opened to glowing reviews, a not inconsiderable $64 million worldwide gross, and bagged Viola Davis, who had starred alongside Washington in that 2010 revival, an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. There have been worse starts.
Washington could have chosen the follow-up a number of ways: personal preference, timeliness, topicality. He could have gone with a tombola or darts or. It ought to be called business-show.”
