"There ought not never have been no time called 'too early'!" says Troy Maxson to his friend Bono in August Wilson's "Fences." The words had double meaning on Saturday night at The Players' Ring, as opening weekend for the first production by the new theater production company Jukwaa Mazoa seemed to come at least a week "too early" for a few of the actors, as they carried their scripts with them onstage, breaking up the flow of Wilson's seamless work and distracting the audience from the story. Although we never quite got used to it, and wondered about being charged admission for what often felt like a rehearsal, there were beautiful moments in the play, with sincere family relationships, passionate dialogue and some fine acting, that did justice to the Pulitzer Prize-winning script.

"Fences" is Troy Maxson's story. A black American born in the south in 1904, Troy spent the first 14 years of his life learning the values of family and work, as well as the reality of violence, from his sharecropper father. After leaving home for work in the city of Mobile, Troy found himself robbing for a living and ends up killing a man. He served 15 years in jail for his crime, and it's in prison that he learned how to play baseball as well as any of the pros of his era. Later rejected from playing on teams, Troy believes it was his color rather than his age that stopped him. Now a 53-year-old man with two sons from two different women and a home in gritty Pittsburgh, Troy attempts with diminishing success to deal with a quickly changing world and the damaged hearts that are his family's and his own.

Michael Henderson, as Troy, offers the finest performance of the show. The moment he emerges on the stage we are on his side, his long, easy gait carrying a man burdened with life but lightened by humor. Troy's first stories are about his meetings with the Devil and with Death, the latter with whom he has wrestled "for three days and three nights."

Henderson's voice and coloring of each line make him perfect as the storyteller, as if he were the voice of August Wilson himself, carrying on the centuries-old African American tradition of storytelling . It's obvious that Henderson is a trained and skilled actor, and he brings the necessary weight and depth to the character of Troy Maxson. Like his character, Henderson is the one who holds the show together; his energy onstage pulls the other actors and allows not only them, but the audience as well, to feel at ease. We learn to lean on this actor, as Troy's wife, sons, brother and friends lean on Troy.

The strengths in this production of "Fences" lie undoubtedly in the relationships and the dialogue. Sandra Seals Clark gives a dynamic performance as Troy's wife Rose. Though at times Clark loses confidence, in her strongest moments she has us in her hands. The playfulness between Rose and Troy is sweet and sincere, and the love she wields for her man comes through in her cheerful brush-offs of his constant talk of sex. When Troy finally confesses that he's expecting a baby with another woman, Rose's reaction is one of the finest moments in the show. She hits his chest, shouts in his face, and fuels her anger with her unrelenting dedication to her husband. After all his preaching about the value of family, she now bears the burden of teaching him the true meaning of his own words.

Troy might not recognize it, but Rose has also shouldered the burden of keeping together her husband and their teenage son, Cory. Cory is played by Travis Goss, a newcomer to the stage whose performance is tentative but with a tangible seriousness. He shines at the point when his relationship to his new sister buds in a brief but tender moment in the final scene, when the two sing their father's favorite song. The only other music we hear in the play is the trumpet that is played between scenes, whose resonant notes serve as a reminder of hope as well as death.

A similar note is sounded by Gabriel, Troy's younger brother, who walks around with a trumpet and basket slung over each shoulder, donning a white brimmed hat and praising everything, all the while singing "Better get ready for the judgement day!" Raphael Rawlins does a wonderful job with the character of the war-damaged Gabriel, making us love him even if we can't quite enter his self-made world of heavenly gates and conversations with the angels. Director Billy Butler's blocking, which in certain respects works wonderfully, as movement flows easily throughout the play, shows some weakness when the backs of the actors are turned to the center audience. Gabriel's kind face is hardly visible, and this could have been avoided had Butler used more diagonals on the thrust stage at The Ring. His work building the relationships onstage, however, is tremendous.

Tony Massey looks the part and does a decent job as Lyons, Troy's oldest son, the harmless and flashy freeloader, although his words are often delivered without the punch the script offers. One has to be a good listener to hear what Lyons really wants to say. Playing the part of Bono, Ralph Hamilton had the most trouble with his lines. It's difficult to tell what Ralph Hamilton's interpretation of the character would have been had he been better prepared.

It is indeed the script that plays the strongest role in this show. No matter who is speaking, the words contain so much truth and honesty that the audience finds itself nodding and shaking its communal head at the dreams and miseries of the human condition. Although the subject of racism is the skeleton of this particular story, Wilson's words go far beyond color and lifestyle.