August Wilson's Radio Golf Soars Like an Eagle

August Wilson's Radio Golf

Directed  by Kenny Leon

 

CAST (in order of appearance):

Michole Briana White as Mame Wilks, Hassan El-Amin as Harmond Wilks, James A. Williams as Roosevelt Hicks, Eugene Lee as Sterling Johnson, Anthony Chisolm as Elder Joseph Barlow

 

Scenic Design, David Gallo; Costume Design, Susan Hilferty; Lighting Design, Donald Holder; Sound Design, Dan Moses Schreier; Composer,  Kathryn Bostic

 

Performance through October 15 at Huntington Theatre Company                                                                                                                Box Office 617-266-0800 or www.huntingtontheatre.org

 

Exquisite writing, gifted acting, and intelligent directing come together in a powerful presentation of August Wilson's Radio Golf, the finale of the late playwright's ten-play cycle. When the lights come up on the storefront office of Bedford Hills Redevelopment, Inc., we are transported to the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a community in transition in 1997.

Harmond Wilks and his wife Mame have a game plan to build on his reputation and skill as a successful real estate developer by mounting a campaign that would make him the first African-American mayor of the city.  Mame is well-connected in her own right and has a plum job awaiting her in the Governor's office after the election.  They are on a roll and almost can't believe their good fortune.  This is what they have been working for.  They are players.

Harmond's business partner Roosevelt Hicks is also ambitious and voices a desire to be given an official post in the Wilks administration.  He appears to be the junior partner in the pairing and he also serves as a vice-president of a local bank.  His serious avocation, however, is golf.  He tacks up a poster of Tiger Woods on the office bulletin board and he runs a golf camp for kids.  Roosevelt waxes poetic as he describes the feeling of hitting a golf ball for the first time and he wants to share that sensation with the kids.

 

Golf represents opportunity here as Roosevelt also uses it as an entrée into a new business venture with Bernie Smith, a white man who is buying a radio station. The FCC is favoring purchases by minority owners and Roosevelt sees this as his "shot" so he can afford to leave the oppressive bank.  Harmond looks at the flip side of the deal where it seems that Smith is using Hicks, but he is also happy for his friend who will do anything to get ahead.  (Wilson uses some foreshadowing here, but we don't know it at the time.)

 

While waiting for the City to declare the Hill District blighted and get the funding they need, Wilks receives two visitors who will prove to be pivotal in the development of the story.  Enter Sterling Johnson, a fast-talker from the old neighborhood who is looking for a job in construction and serves as a sort of mirror for Harmond as things unfold.  Then Elder Joseph Barlow wanders in, in search of Christians.  He talks in non-sequiturs, first describing the death and burial of his dog as if it just happened, garnering sympathy from Wilks, then revealing that it was eight years ago.  He says he needs a lawyer and asks Wilks repeatedly to be his lawyer, but Harmond is not a lawyer.  Old Joe, as he is called, is a pest, but an endearing one, and Anthony Chisolm gets it just right.

 

Once all of the characters have been introduced, Wilson goes on to seamlessly lay out the story and connect all the dots between them.  Barlow claims to be the owner of an abandoned old house in the middle of the Bedford Hills project site.  While it is slated for demolition, he wants to paint it and make it a home for his daughter, uninterested in any offer of compensation.  It also turns out that Old Joe knew Harmond?s father and late brother, and his mentioning of them dredges up the past and stirs many emotions within Wilks. He is forced to examine his actions and motivations vis-à-vis the revitalization of the old neighborhood and the mayoral campaign. This self-reflection results in some decisions which are unpopular with both his wife and his partner, setting off a chain reaction which he is powerless to stop.

 

The playwright has done an outstanding job of creating three-dimensional characters that all come across as real people.  Credit also goes to the cast, each of whom draws us in to their view of the situation.  There is no villain here, despite the conflicts that play out.  Rather, we are able to see how one character affects another and changes the course of events.  Sterling serves as a collective conscience, while Old Joe is a walking historian whose chronicles of the past remind Harmond where he came from and, in effect, where he ought to be going.  He wants to revitalize the Hill District and he wants the chance to be mayor, but he veers off that path when something else seems right to him.  Mame and Roosevelt feel betrayed and choose to follow their own hearts, even if it hurts Harmond.

 

Perhaps part of the genius of August Wilson is his ability to have his characters portray the struggle within the African-American community between moving forward and grasping opportunity versus maintaining and cherishing its heritage.  This may be a universal message for any ethnic group in pursuit of the so-called American Dream.  And these are not easy themes to look at - family, neighborhood, race, and ambition.  But Wilson made a career of it, bringing out all the dirty laundry, and doing it with humor, poetry, and intelligence.

 

[The Huntington Theatre Company tees off its 25^th Anniversary Season with this production of Radio Golf.  It is the eighth August Wilson play featured at HTC and the fourth to open a season.  This represents the end of an era as Wilson passed away last year, shortly after completing the last of his epic cycle of plays.  Radio Golf will make its way to Broadway.]