Gem of the Ocean

Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Ave. Mill Valley

It's 1904 in August Wilson's hypnotically powerful drama Gem of the Ocean, and riots are erupting in Pennsylvania's Hill District after a black steel mill worker drowned himself rather than confess to a crime he didn't commit. Across town, a murderer arrives on the doorstep of the only peaceful place in the city: the home of Aunt Ester, a cleanser of souls who sends him on a journey of spiritual awakening. Gem of the Ocean is chronologically the first play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle -- a decade-by-decade dramatization of aspects of the African-American experience in the 20th century. Begin at the beginning as it comes to Marin Theater Company in a new production starring Bay Area sensation Margo Hall.