August Wilson wrote 10 plays dealing with the African-American experience. They take place throughout every decade of the 20th century and most of them are set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pa. The last play Wilson wrote, “Radio Golf,” at the Studio Theatre, is set in 1997 and focuses on a dynamic, successful politician named Harmond Wilks (Walter Coppage), who is determined to become the first black mayor of Pittsburgh.
Wilks sets up his campaign office in a storefront office in the run-down Hill District. He has ambitious plans to overhaul the deteriorating surroundings, razing old, decrepit houses in order to build new apartments and attract high-class chain stores.
The problem for Wilks is that the neighborhood doesn’t accept his vision of “progress.” “Radio Golf” aims at big targets, suggesting that Wilks, in his desire for success, has lost touch with his past and with the reality of the people living on the Hill.
In “Radio Golf” there are two characters who urge Wilks to focus on personal success alone: his wife, Mame (Deidra LaWan Starnes) and his best friend, Roosevelt (Kim Sullivan).
But two other powerful figures vie for Wilks’ attention: a house-painter named Sterling (Erik Kilpatrick) and “Elder” Joseph Barlow (Frederick Strother), who refuses to leave one of the houses Wilks plans to tear down. These characters act as Wilks’ conscience, reminding him that he needs to remember the past and consider the consequences of his actions.
Director Ron Himes has turned the five capable actors into a well-orchestrated ensemble. Coppage and Sullivan are smooth and credible as the Ivy League graduates who believe they are born to make history.
Starnes is effective as Wilks’ upwardly mobile, elegant wife. Kilpatrick and Strother are powerful as the men who refuse to cower before Wilks’ money and power and who ultimately force Wilks to wake up and alter his way of life.
All Wilson’s plays blend realism with symbolism and poetry, allowing them to function on two levels simultaneously. This production neatly balances those elements, highlighting Wilson’s extraordinary gifts as a playwright.
