Fences

Fences is a staging of August Wilson's play at the Lyric Hammersmith in London, presented as a theatre show. It follows a family in 1950s Pittsburgh whose tensions build over ambition, responsibility and the past.

The play centres on Troy Maxson, a man who has survived a brush with death but feels the past closing in on him. Outside the home he is a figure of humour and storytelling; inside it, the pressures he carries begin to surface. His wife, Rose, works to hold the family together and hopes that their son, Cory, will have more freedom in a changing world than Troy did. When their hopes clash and tempers rise, the household moves towards a reckoning.

The production is directed by Daniel Bailey, whose recent work includes Red Pitch in the West End. It is a theatre show with a play-based structure and a focus on dialogue and family conflict, so audiences can expect a drama driven by character and argument rather than spectacle. Wilson's play is one of the most-performed works of American theatre of the late twentieth century, and its themes of ambition and restriction remain relevant.

The Lyric Hammersmith is a theatre in London's west, and this staging suits those interested in serious American drama and in a close look at a family under strain.