August Wilson’s Fences, which part of his acclaimed Pittsburgh Cycle, became one of the 20th century’s most popular plays when it was first staged in 1987, winning both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play.
A revival with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis later won the Tony Award for Best Revival in 2010, with Davis also winning an Oscar for the film adaptation.
Our Classic Book Discussion Group will read and discuss this classic play at their November 2026 meeting.
*****
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Troy Maxson is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less. This is a modern classic, a book that deals with the impossibly difficult themes of race in America, set during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.
*****
Copies of Fences can be picked up from the Book Discussion Shelf on our first floor. You can also download a copy of Fences through Overdrive/Libby as an ebook.
An in-person discussion of Twelfth Night will be held at the library on Thursday, November 19, at 6:00 PM. No registration is required to attend.
Published on November 4, 2026.
Back to News