BUILDING `FENCES' FISHBURNE, BASSETT, EPPS CONSTRUCT ESTEEMED PLAY NAIL BY EMOTIONAL NAIL.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

One of these days, Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett will play characters who are as congenial and comfortable with each other as the two longtime friends actually are in real life.

Until then, this chemistry/friction thing seems to be working out well for the pair. They met in 1988, first worked together in 1991, were nominated for Oscars in the same film two years later, and are about to share the stage in a Pasadena Playhouse revival of August Wilson's ``Fences.''

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Fishburne will play Troy Maxon, a onetime Negro League star, now a garbage man, trying to hold his family together in 1957 Pittsburgh. Bassett plays his wife, Rose, credited by Troy with saving his life -- even though his betrayal of her is at the heart of the play.

Meaning, once again, that Fishburne and Bassett are playing a husband and wife negotiating rough waters.

They've done this dance before. In John Singleton's ``Boyz N the Hood,'' Fishburne and Bassett played the no-

longer-together parents of Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Tre Styles. Two years later -- in ``What's Love Got to Do With It?'' -- Fishburne's Ike Turner and Bassett's Tina nearly destroy each other.

Their third film together, ``Akeelah and the Bee,'' released earlier this year and out on DVD this week, didn't cast the two actors as lovers or exes, but Fishburne's Dr. Larabee clashes with Bassett's single mom, Tanya Anderson, over the fate of her spelling-talented daughter, Akeelah (Keke Palmer).

Pasadena Playhouse artistic director Sheldon Epps had long been looking to work on a play with Bassett. After securing the rights to ``Fences'' from the Wilson estate, he asked Bassett about playing Rose. Bassett jumped at the chance and asked Epps whether Fishburne might be approached to play Troy.

Coincidentally or otherwise, the two actors had discussed the idea of someday building ``Fences'' together even before Epps' call. And Fishburne, who had recently concluded a run of ``Without Walls'' at the Mark Taper Forum, was still in a play-performing frame of mind.

``You can't rehearse in history and connection. People bring that into the room with them or they don't,'' says Epps. ``In terms of emotional and even physical familiarity, to genuinely be able to touch each other and express affection and love -- all those things -- we can take a week and a half for two strangers to get there. They had it on the second day of rehearsal.''

That ease is every bit in evidence as Bassett, 48, and Fishburne, 45, sit for an interview in a Playhouse rehearsal space.

``I think it's the generosity of spirit, the allowance of vulnerability and respect we bring to the table. And the unselfishness,'' Bassett says of her working relationship with Fishburne.

``There's a lot of respect and real joy,'' returns Fishburne. ``We take a lot of pride in doing what we do. This is a great play, and I think we've been responsible with our gifts, and this is one of God's ways of rewarding us.''

They've never acted on stage together, although both have been in original productions of Wilson's plays. Bassett was in ``Joe Turner's Come and Gone,'' while Fishburne won a Tony Award for his work in Wilson's ``Two Trains Running.'' Both productions were directed by Lloyd Richards, former dean of the Yale University School of Drama.

They're both married to other actors, Fishburne to Gina Torres, and Bassett to Courtney B. Vance, who Fishburne telephoned once he was cast in ``Fences.'' Vance appeared in the original 1987 production of ``Fences'' opposite James Earl Jones' Troy and Mary Alice's Rose.

``Courtney and I are the same generation, and I wanted to acknowledge how important the experience was,'' says Fishburne. ``We have to have more than a small bit of reverence for the people involved in that production.

``Angela and I have spent a lot of time working together. We've been cast as husband and wife many times, and I thought, `What a nice way to acknowledge her marriage, her husband and her life,' '' he continues. ``Her husband played this play a long time, and he was terrific in it.''

According to Bassett, Vance initially had to warm to the idea of the ``Fences'' revival. The couple recently became the parents of twins, and Vance couldn't quite envision how scheduling would work out if Bassett was doing eight performances a week in Pasadena.

``I remember we were in the bathroom, and I was really pissed at him,'' Bassett says. ``I said, `Now try to understand this: This is a play you did. This is an amazing opportunity, an amazing play, a great company, the Pasadena Playhouse, Sheldon, Laurence, one of the best plays in the American theater. Can't you just go, ``Whooo!''?' ''

This draws a huge laugh from Fishburne.

``And then we'll see! But just in this moment, I'm not thinking ahead,'' Bassett continues. ``He's thinking ahead: How are you going to work that. Then he got happy, and every night when I come home, he asks how it went. But I have to be careful because he can be an hour and a half talking about this play.''

The two actors both remember the playwright Wilson -- who died in 2005 -- as a quiet man with a marvelous sense of humor.

``I just see him with that hat on, the ever-present cigarette, the yellow note pad and a pencil, his head down, writing in cafes or something,'' says Bassett. ``I remember being in a restaurant in New Haven in the early '80s, and he was talking about a character and a bucket of nails. That character wound up in `Gem of the Ocean.' It's as if these people came up and spoke to him.''

``He was always listening to those things, and he was an artist,'' agrees Fishburne. ``I thought he was a poet and a warrior.

``The place that both Angela and I are at in our lives as artists, to come together to do this particular play ... I don't know all of Sheldon's history, but it seems so evenly matched with our own. You bring all those things together and you arrive here.

``It feels good,'' he adds. ``It feels really good.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

[e-mail]

FENCES

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Oct. 1.

Tickets: $38 to $60. [phone] or visit www.Pasadenaplayhouse.org.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Up close

Longtime friends Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett talk about their lives and `Fences'

(2) ``I think it's the generosity of spirit, the ... vulnerability and respect we bring to the table,'' Angela Bassett says of her working relation-ship with Laurence Fishburne, left, her co-star in ``Fences,'' directed by Sheldon Epps, right.