Two Trains Running

Two Trains Running is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the seventh in his ten-part series The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, while its Broadway première was on 13 April 1992 at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City.

Plot synopsis

The play takes place in the Hill District, an African-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1969. It explores the social and psychological manifestations of changing attitudes toward race from the perspective of urban blacks.

Historical context

African-American migration

Seeking to escape from poverty, racism, and segregatory "Jim Crow" laws, many black Americans migrated to northern industrial cities during the early and mid-20th century. Most of these migrants had worked in agriculture in the former Confederate slave states, and few were well acquainted with urban life. Broadly speaking, blacks who moved north could expect higher wages, better educational opportunities, and greater potential for social advancement than they had received in the South. This story is written by August Wilson about love, hate, and struggles African Americans faced in the late 1960s and early '70s.