Pittsburgh Playwright’s ‘Radio Golf’ Sparkles

Partner and Tiger Woods fan Hicks (Rich Dickson) informs associate and mayoral candidate Harmond Wilks (Roosevelt Watts, Jr.) how important the game of golf can be in business.

There’s much to absorb in August Wilson’s Radio Golf, produced by Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. The play is August Wilson’s last in his famous “Pittsburgh Cycle” covering ten decades of hope, success, struggle and disappointment in our city’s historic, multi-ethnic neighborhood, the Hill. It won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play in 2007.  And for good reason. Like grasping a wet kitchen sponge, it holds much more weight than one might expect.

Radio Golf unfolds in 1997. Harmond Wilks, an Ivy League-educated lawyer, heir to his father’s real estate business, commercial developer, ambitious politician, and sometime golfer is also happily married. Mame, his beloved wife, (Dominique Briggs) has her hands in the political arena, too, developing her husband’s mayoral campaign while also looking to serve the state’s governor in his much larger office. Harmond Wilks (Roosevelt Watts, Jr.) is just about to launch his bid for Pittsburgh mayor with the unveiling of his hard-sought project, a 180-apartment complex supported by retail anchors, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, and Whole Foods. It’s all sure to be “spic and span” proof of his devotion to his blighted, once-great neighborhood. Everything is in place—design, zoning, financing, leasing, construction contracts—and, in just a few days, the demolition crew will bulldoze the last of the abandoned houses standing in his way. That’s when Roosevelt Hicks, Wilk’s longtime friend, golf buddy and business partner, (Rich Dickson) enters to share something odd. He’s just seen an old man painting the exterior of the very house that’s soon to be demolished. “How stupid could someone be?” he asks, certain the guy is a total looney.

Candidate Wilks’ (Watts) defers to his wife and “higher power” (Dominique Briggs) in deciding which political path to follow.

Indeed, the “fool” rushes in. Elder Joseph Barlow (Mike Traylor) needs Wilks’ legal counsel to fight a citation he’s just been handed for defiling “public” property. Elder Joe has good reason for fixing up the home he’s “let go;” his daughter is moving back to town. And, thus begins Harmond Wilks’ epic chore of scrubbing for the truth. Of course, the anticipatory question posed is “who will get dirtiest in the process?”

Enter the Clean Up Crew

Playwriting, as well as staging brilliant theater, can be sloppy work. But August Wilson goes at it full steam. Here, there is so much exposition that he just spills it, forthwith. It’s smart to do, but—like a bucket of soapy water dumped on the floor—it’s also alarming. And here, too, the central character is no jitney driver, no fenced-in garbageman, but a bold character with some proud accomplishments. Roosevelt  Watts, Jr., as Wilks, shows us he’s a caring man, nostalgic, sensitive, and deeply rooted in family. Watts absolutely shines on stage when he’s defending his pride. Likewise, “wife” Dominique Briggs is sure-footed, comfortable in character and leaves no doubt that she knows her way in this complex story. 

And then there’s Mike Traylor who plays Elder Joe Barlow, the “fool” who is painting the house in question. Yet there can be no question about Traylor’s acting. A stage veteran of nine of August Wilson’s cycle plays, he totally cleans up. Traylor is a dramatist’s delight, deserving his own curtain call in a performance the late playwright surely would love to have seen. Nor, as Wilks’ partner Hicks, is Rich Dickson an actor soon to forget. What joy he brings to a play otherwise dimmed by dilemma and despair. Dickson holds his own to the very end. Last, but hardly least, is Maurice Redwood who plays Sterling Johnson, a neighborhood grifter who claims to have the tenacity and (most of) the tools to triumph. Redwood brings a whole lot of energy and skill to the set. It’s clear he, like all of this cast, knows the honor of performing August Wilson’s indelible work. 

Heroic Wilks (Roosevelt Watts, Jr.) can’t accept that “street smart” Sterling Johnson (Maurice Redwood) has much claim on valor, let alone a bag of stolen golf clubs.

Radio Golf is an evening that shines. Had it not rained just prior to opening night curtain, the venue would have been in the backyard of the August Wilson House, lovingly restored on Bedford Avenue, once the actual home of Pittsburgh’s famous playwright. But the show went on—as it always must—in Pittsburgh Playwrights’ Madison Arts Center on Milwaukee Street. Different performances are scheduled at each theater during Radio Golf’s run through September 14. Weather can also be determinative. Be certain to check the website for the latest info and tickets.

Glistening Inspections

Director Montae Russell delivers adept staging that otherwise begs chaos. Again, there’s so much exposition only a director who knows his craft can keep it clean and focused. Russell (who originated the role of Youngblood in Jitney at Allegheny Repertory Theater in 1982) knows his Wilson and shows devout reverence with this great production. Mark Clayton Southers, otherwise Producing Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Playwrights, earns great credit for his stage design. (My seatmate made note that an appropriate Mellon Bank calendar on set was duly turned to the month of… August!). The production is stage managed by Michele Lee Betts, with sound designed by Ben Cain, and lighting by Latrice Lovett. Cheryl El Walker deserves recognition for costumes, as well as hair and make-up. Jason Kmetic and Piper Clement are the electricians, and Ashley Southers assisted in managing the stage. To be noted, too, is credit for an alternate cast with the roles of Mame Wilks and Sterling Johnson performed by Karla C. Payne and Sam Lothard, respectively. 

Accomplished lawyer, realtor and commercial developer Harmond Wilks (Roosevelt Watts, Jr.) addresses chores he’d rather not face.

Photos: Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre.

C. Prentiss Orr is a Pittsburgh-based writer who covers theater and other topics for Entertainment Central. He is the author of the books The Surveyor and the Silversmith and Pittsburgh Born, Pittsburgh Bred.

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