SOURCE: "Reclaiming the Past: Narrative and Memory in August Wilson's Two Trains Running," in Theater, Vol. 22, No. 1, Winter, 1990, pp. 73-4.

In the following essay, Wilde studies how Wilson gives expression to the memories of African Americans in Two Trains Running.

"All I do is try to live in the world but the world done gone crazy. I'm sorry I was ever born into it"—Sterling

May, 1969. The corner of Fullerton and Wylie Street in Pittsburgh. A small restaurant, long forgotten by the general crowds and now being readied for demolition. Outside, the world moved convulsively towards the future. But within the walls of the restaurant, the regulars spin webs of refuge: they spend hours philosophizing, telling stories, debating politics, competing to prove each other wrong. In their profuse yet precise recombinations of image and phrase, they rebuild the past.

In his newest play, Two Trains Running, August Wilson...