Jitney is the only one of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle of ten plays to have been written in the decade in which it is set and, as his first, wasn’t yet part of the cycle.  Wilson did not write them in chronological order and one look at the production photos and you’ll see the distinctive Afro hairstyles of the 1970s and some flamboyant clothing.  Jitney wasn’t given a Broadway production until 2017, despite being written in 1979.  In the early 1980s, August Wilson took his mother to see the play riding to the theatre in Pittsburgh in a Jitney. 

A Jitney is cheap and unlicensed public transport with a price bracket affordable to that minority of Americans who do not own a car, but also illegal.  This play is set in the Jitney office of Becker (Wil Johnson) where the public phone up for a car and the drivers wait for a job.  Licensed, regular taxis refuse to travel to this largely black area.  It is in the run down area of Pittsburgh’s Hill District where August Wilson grew up, and is of course about the American Dream and its disappointment.