Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe may be best known to many theatergoers for its musicals, but occasionally the company presents straight plays—dramas that reflect on the Black American experience and history. And when it does, it often turns to the works of August Wilson, as with the current production of his Pulitzer and Tony-winning play, Fences.

WBTT has offered other Wilson plays on its stage, and Fences was once produced here nearly 20 years ago. As the company has grown and expanded, this production is a chance to see what its actors, designers and directorial team are capable of now.

Fences centers on the family of Pittsburgh sanitation worker Troy Maxson (Patric Robinson), a onetime baseball player in the Negro Leagues, who’s faced privation and prejudice throughout his life. But as the show opens in the 1950s, he seems to have found better days.

He has a good friend and co-worker, Jim Bono (Brian L. Boyd), with whom he can share laughs and frank talk over drinks on a Friday night. He has a loving wife, Rose (Ariel Blue), who’s willing to put up with his nonsense, and a young son, Cory (Zion Thompson), who also possesses a talent for sports. True, he has a strained relationship with his older son from another mother, Lyons (Donovan Whitney), and a brother who suffered a brain injury in World War II (Leon Pitts II). But on the surface things aren’t too bad.

Under the surface, though, Troy remains bitter about his past—an abusive father, a long-gone mother, and the denial of his dreams to play in the Major Leagues. Those dreams denied in a segregationist era end up dividing him from those he loves most.

It’s obvious from the moment we glimpse scenic designer Roland Black’s set of the back porch and yard of the Maxson home how a physical fence can work to both keep the world outside and the family within. The emotional fences Troy has built inside himself take a bit longer to see, but with Wilson’s masterful writing and Jim Weaver’s understanding direction, that realization comes in time.

Initially, there’s a lot of humor to Wilson’s dialogue (although on the night I attended, some audience members seemed to find even the more serious moments funny in some way). But there’s no laughter when Troy’s biggest secrets come out, threatening the life he’s built with Rose and the others.

It's a pleasure to watch the cast members work together so honestly here. Although Robinson was originally the understudy for the lead role of Troy, he and Blue feel like they have a natural connection onstage; you can see the love there, behind the teasing and banter. Blue inhabits Rose with conviction, and some of the show's strongest scenes come between her and Robinson.

Pitts, who’s often played more comic roles at WBTT, is touching and believable as the damaged brother Gabriel, who wanders the streets peddling fruit and clutching a trumpet. Whitney has the right laid-back, loose attitude as Lyons, who won’t leave behind his dream of playing music, even when it leaves him broke. And Thompson, who moved up through WBTT’s Stage of  Discovery summer camp, proves the worth of that program for aspiring actors with his performance as Cory. All in all, the production swings for the fences, and scores.

Fences continues through Feb. 23 at WBTT. For tickets, call (941) 366-1505 or visit westcoastblacktheatre.org.