By Tom Scanlon
Seattle Rep
closes Feb. 18
born in Pittsburgh, April 27, 1945,
died in Seattle, Oct 2, 2005
A birdie, for any other writer; barely par, for the great August Wilson
Never really explores the hanging radio/golf metaphors
The play’s two “caddies” – secondary characters who set up the action – are far more interesting than the “pros.” And the actors playing those secondary characters are terrific:
As radio, it’s between stations, not sure if it’s “mainstream pop” or “aggressive talk”; ultimately leaning toward the latter, but with – for Wilson – a surprising/disappointing number of pop references (Tiger Woods, Starbucks) in the modern-day world. Rather than the recent past -- this play is set in the 1990s -- Wilson works far better in the distant-past.
Directed by Kenny Leon with a stunning, under-used two-level set – it does show a bland but functional office in the midst of crumbling neighbors
Like golf a man-dominated world, with Denise Burse as Marne barely able to get on the fairway (and you could say the character is stuck in a sand trap)
Rocky Carroll as Harmond Wilks – the central figure, a real estate man and would-be mayor candidate who must decide between charging ahead with a multi-million dollar renovation or saving a crumbling house -- is slick and somewhat superficial, the TV actor (“Chicago Hope,” “Roc”) unwilling or unable to plumb the depths of Harmond. Like a politician he is all smiles, whether things are going well or poorly . . .
Anthony Chisholm (Elder Joseph Barlow) is brilliant, scoring in nearly every scene that features his great, growling presence; his lessons in urban logic are priceless, and Wilson’s creation – a ghetto Socrates – is marvelous but under-developed.
John Earl Jelks is dangerous and unpredictable as a drifter named Sterling; unfortunately, Sterling and Elder Joseph rarely intersect – this play really should have focused on them, perhaps as the modern, African-American Plato-Socrates.
James A. Williams is capable as Roosevelt Hicks, Harmond’s friend and business partner who breaks the other way.
Though ultimately not satisfying, in and of itself, Radio Golf often dazzles, showing yet again what an imitable gift for language and people that August Wilson had.
It’s rather distressing to think of him in the past tense, when you think of how far above the pack of American playwrights his body of work rests.