Wednesday June 21 & Monday, June 26 | August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning 1985 play is a searing examination of family and racial oppression in 1950s Pittsburgh. Troy (Washington) is the bitter, working-class patriarch of the Maxon family, who regularly reminisces about the pro baseball career he might have had. When his son Troy is given an opportunity to make something of himself, Troy’s resentments toward himself, his family, and his wife Rose (Viola Davis, in an Oscar-winning performance) overwhelm him. Washington directs this adaptation of the play’s 2010 Broadway revival (for which he and co-star Viola Davis won Tony Awards), delivering a blistering account of a haunted man.

Awards & Nominations

Winner - Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis), Academy Awards
Nominee - Best Picture, Best Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Adapted Screenplay, Academy Awards

Daddy Issues: Paternal relationships—from the challenging to the cherished—have been consistent fodder for the big screen. In the ten films of our Daddy Issues series—timed perfectly for you to celebrate (or denounce) Father’s Day—we take a closer look at the foundational father figure in film. From the heroic to the delinquent, from the absent to the affable, the fathers of Daddy Issues have raised us, onscreen and off. View full series.