The Story Archive

Two Trains Running

August Wilson · 1990 CE · Play · Modern / American · Contemporary

A Hill District diner in 1969 is down to a handful of regulars, a city offer to buy the building, and talk of the numbers, a Malcolm X rally and a prophet's funeral drawing crowds down the block. A man who painted a fence nine years ago and was never paid the ham he was promised comes in daily to say the one sentence he has left. Wilson's 1960s entry stays inside the restaurant while the decade happens outside it.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
PoliticalTragicomedy
Theme
Justice & RevengeClass & InequalityRace & IdentityFaith & Doubt
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanWise FoolScapegoat
Plot structure
EpisodicDialogueCircular
Symbol / motif
The FeastThe CityThe Tomb
Conflict
vs Societyvs Person
Mode / tone
RealistIronic
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

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