If you live in the Washington area and haven’t heard by now that the late August Wilson wrote a series of 10 plays chronicling the black experience in America for each decade of the 20th century, then you should probably also learn that Britney shaved her head bald and they now have these newfangled automobiles running around on french-fry grease.

If you haven’t been living in the shadow of a large and sheltering stone fixture, then you know that our national capital area is a sizzling hotbed for Wilson’s work, and the latest episode presented here is the ninth contribution to his ambitious cycle, 2004’s “Gem of the Ocean.”