Troy Maxson is a Pittsburgh sanitation worker who once dreamed of a baseball career, but was too old when the major leagues finally admitted black players. As he faces off against the racial barrier at work and his own disappointments, Troy also grapples with his son, Cory, over the teenager’s hope for a football scholarship and with his wife, Rose, who confronts Troy over a child he has fathered with another woman.
What Is the Story of Fences?
Fences centers on the Maxons, an African-American family living in Pittsburgh in 1957. Patriarch Troy, a sanitation worker, is an embittered former player in baseball’s Negro Leagues. Matriarch Rose runs the household, stretching Troy’s meager paycheck to keep things going. Their teen son Cory is being recruited to play college football, a source of contention with his father. Also on the scene are Troy’s older son Lyons, brain-damaged brother Gabriel and drinking buddy Bono. The main action of the play takes places over a two-month period that changes the nature of the Maxons’ marriage and Cory’s path in life forever.
