Talk in diner is deep

SAN DIEGO — In August Wilson’s plays, language is action.

That might seem a paradox, but consider what occurs in “Two Trains Running,” his civil rights era drama set in a Pittsburgh diner. Long stretches of the story involve little more than characters sitting around talking, but their conversation churns with ideas -- momentous ones.

A gripping revival of the play at the Old Globe stands as a powerful testament to Wilson’s way with words, much as other revisits -- including the towering “Fences” at Pasadena Playhouse and the lovingly rendered “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at the Fountain -- have done in the year and a half since the playwright’s death at 60 from cancer.

What’s more, the Old Globe production, directed with measured precision by Seret Scott and captivatingly performed by a cast of seven, confirms “Two Trains’ ” pivotal position in the 10-play cycle wherein Wilson chronicled the African American experience in the 20th century, decade by decade. Though nominated for a Pulitzer, this play never garnered as much respect as “The Piano Lesson” or as much popularity as “Fences,” the scripts for which he did earn Pulitzers. But “Two Trains” is a Rosetta stone to the rest of the cycle. It’s packed with themes and personalities that Wilson further developed elsewhere -- a quality not immediately obvious when the play was introduced in the early 1990s, with the cycle only about half complete.

The hardscrabble diner that provides the story’s setting is in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1969. Just a handful of regulars typically can be found there, jawing over this and that. Their conversation sounds, at first, like little more than local gossip, but as topics recur, deeper meanings are revealed, many having to do with the repercussions of slavery and the inequities stacking the deck against African Americans looking for a decent job or a fair deal.

Emerging gradually, the play’s central theme turns out to be one of the defining topics of the civil rights era.

It is embodied in two characters, in particular. One is a grizzled, middle-aged man who endlessly repeats, “He gonna give me my ham” -- referring to the ham denied him years before in payment for a grueling job. The other is a spirited if not yet fully formed young man who is given to black power slogans. He tries to teach the older man new words, such as “Black is beautiful,” but the guy goes right back to his rant.

The legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X loom large -- literally so in Tony Fanning’s set design, with its giant photo portraits of the men hanging in abstract space beyond the walls that outline the patched, mismatched, out-of-date dining room.

With his easy smile and bursts of enthusiasm, Edi Gathegi is a pleasing yet provocative presence as the young man, while Willie C. Carpenter conveys innate dignity in the vocal-tic-blurting compatriot. Portraying the diner’s owner, Chuck Cooper lets his boisterousness slip just enough to reveal the hurt, frustrated guy underneath. As the diner’s resident philosopher, James Avery (performing, post-foot surgery, from a wheelchair) is reasoned and authoritative. And as the waitress who resists being at the men’s beck and call, Roslyn Ruff radiates strength, faith and hope.

Beautifully paced and attuned to the minutest details, this poignant yet surprisingly funny presentation is like a blues song, forever turning old complaints around into joyous release and fierce determination.

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‘Two Trains Running’

Where: Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego

When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Ends: May 27

Price: $19 to $62

Contact: (619) 234-5623

Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes