Arts & Theatre
Gem of the Ocean
10-35
|
Feb 21 - Mar 21, 2026
at
8:00PM - 10:00PM
Long Beach Playhouse
Master playwright, August Wilson, blends naturalism, mysticism, and magical realism to explore the experience of a Black community at the turn of the 20th century. It’s 1904, and Citizen Barlow comes seeking asylum in the Pittsburgh Hill District home of matriarch and spiritual advisor Aunt Ester. She sets him off on a spiritual journey aboard the legendary slave ship Gem of the Ocean to visit the home of the ancestors, the City of Bones. Confronted with the plight of those who came before him, Citizen must come to terms with his own guilt in this unsettling but compelling story filled with humor and heart that is a touchstone for everything else that Wilson has written.
