"Two Trains Running" is the sixth play August Wilson wrote in what is often called The Pittsburgh Cycle, because nine of its 10 plays are set in the Hill District where he grew up.

"Two Trains" is also the fifth of the plays in the order in which they reached Broadway, which is the order in which they're being produced, one each year, by Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, now starting (it stands to reason) its fifth year. On Broadway in 1992, it starred Roscoe Lee Browne, Larry Fishburne, Al White and the same Anthony Chisholm, now starring at Pittsburgh Playwrights.

Each of the 10 plays takes place in a different decade of the 20th century, chronicling, as critic John Lahr has said, "the fever chart" of the African-American response to the legacy of more than two centuries of slavery and another half-century and more of second-class citizenship, violence and racism.

That said, the plays of the cycle are also full of robust humor and a life-affirming spirit that triumphs in the face of overwhelming odds. "Two Trains" is set in 1969, a year after the riots following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Yet in spite of angry talk about the depopulation of the Hill and the city's tepid efforts at renewal, the regulars in Memphis Lee's diner laugh, scheme, bicker, love and philosophize with great vigor, passion and flair.

In addition, "Two Trains" benefits from dramatizing the years of Wilson's young adulthood, when he was an active observer and participant in the tumultuous life of the Hill. Having it staged in Pittsburgh, as it was at the Pittsburgh Public Theater in 1994, allows us to enjoy detail that would be mysterious elsewhere and to reflect on its lessons with added intimacy.

Listed in order of completion and arrival in New York. The first date is when the play takes place; second is the New York production; and third, first Pittsburgh production (theater identified), which may pre-date New York.

"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1927); 1984; 1987 (Kuntu Rep).

"Fences" (1957-58, 1965); 1987; 1989 (Public).

"Joe Turner's Come and Gone" (1911); 1988; 1989 (Public).

"The Piano Lesson" (1936); 1990; 1992 (national tour).

"Two Trains Running" (1969); 1992; 1994 (Public).

"Seven Guitars" (1948); 1996; 1997 (Public).

"Jitney" (1977); rewritten 2000; first version 1982-83 (Allegheny Rep), rewritten 1996 (Public).

"King Hedley II" (1985); 2001; 1999 premiere (Public).

"Gem of the Ocean" (1904); 2004; 2006 (Public).

"Radio Golf" (1997); 2005; scheduled for fall 2008 (Public, completing its cycle of all 10).

For much more coverage of August Wilson, go to post-gazette.com/theater and scroll down to the Wilson photo, which links to the PG's lengthy special Wilson index.

-- Christopher Rawson