After the pandemic, Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre recovery efforts were aimed at partnerships with other theater companies and artists. Continuing that effort, the Rubicon opened 2025 with a beautiful collaboration with New York City’s The Acting Company, who are embarking on a multi-city tour of their production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running.
Two Trains Running is the sixth play in Wilson’s Century Cycle, 10 plays about Black Americans living in Pittsburgh, one play for each decade of the 20th century. Two Trains Running follows a group of friends who hang out in the same diner as they navigate life in the late 1960s. But it’s not just the times that are a-changin’ in 1969 — the neighborhood is changing too. The diner’s owner, Memphis (Michael A. Shepperd), is holding out for a larger government payout for his building, which is being purchased by the city for demolition to make way for new development.
Directed by Lili-Anne Brown, the central conflict of this show isn’t beef between characters; it’s the culture/class war happening outside. Seeing this show is like being a fly on the wall — viewers experience the “moment in time” through the lives of the characters as they report it. Wilson is a master of choosing words that reveal so much through seemingly random exchanges that the world of the play is filled out quickly and with deep specificity.
The Acting Company tells the story with smooth, natural realism and a practiced balance of humor from ebullient to cynical, and serious musings on American social hierarchy. While that hierarchy may have changed over the last 50-plus years of shuffling demographics, one message of Wilson’s play will never change: At the bottom of the pile, the people with the least amount of agency and power are the people who are systematically denied resources.
See Two Trains Running through February 2 in Ventura. See rubicontheatre.org/events/two-trains-running.
