Two Trains Running

Penumbra’s milestone 25th season is in a big way due to a guy in the audience during their very first production—August Wilson, arguably the foremost living dramatist in America. In 1981, Penumbra staged Wilson’s first professionally produced play, forging a relationship that’s stayed close ever since. Wilson went on to wow Broadway with his 1984 drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, part of a ten-play project chronicling the African-American experience decade by decade through the 20th century, and a string of triumphs from there included Pulitzers for Fences and The Piano Lesson. As his fortunes rose, so did Penumbra’s, which became as inextricably linked to his biography as the Globe is with Shakespeare. The theater gained a lasting national reputation and enduring audience, which they’re celebrating this season with an all-Wilson docket, winding up with the Midwest premiere in May of his latest, the Tony-winning King Hedley II. In Two Trains, Wilson focuses on the denizens of a rundown diner in 1969 Pittsburgh as they fight to get through those tumultuous times, including Vietnam, the breakdown of the inner city and the rise of black power. Penumbra Theatre, (651) 224-3180, www.penumbratheatre.com