In the Rough

citypaper.net exclusive: Radio Golf doesn't meet the high standards of Wilson's greatest, but poses an intriguing moral dilemma

by Mark Cofta

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Published: Apr 4, 2007

The late August Wilson's last play, also the finale of his 10-play cycle chronicling black American life, decade by decade, through the last century, is set in 1997 but feels very modern. Radio Golf — in a Broadway-bound production at Princeton's McCarter Theatre with star actors — doesn't meet the high standards of Wilson's greatest (Fences, Gem Of The Ocean, The Piano Lesson), but (as they all do) poses an intriguing moral dilemma.

Harry Lennix plays Harmond Wilks, a dynamic Pittsburgh mayoral candidate who's also partner in a plan to revitalize the Hill District (the setting of many Wilson plays) with a condo complex featuring Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks — and a clinic.

In Harmond's way is Elder Joseph Barlow (Anthony Chisholm), Wilson's requisite crazy prophet who speaks in parables ("Do you know where I can find any Christian people?" he demands upon entering). Barlow paints his condemned house in defiance of Harmond's demolition order, but earns the slick politician's sympathy when Harmond discovers that Barlow still rightfully owns it.

On the other side of Harmond's tug-of-war is Roosevelt Hicks (James A. Williams), who's happy to front a rich white man's bid to buy a radio station (minority ownership is required) to gain entry into the whites-only golf world (hence the play's weak title). Golf, he exclaims, "sets you on a path in life where everything's possible."

The play falters in its other two characters, who do little more than echo these positions. John Earl Jelks plays contractor Sterling, another neighborhood oldtimer questioning Harmond's priorities, and Tony Pinkins plays Mame, Harmond's campaign manager — and also wife, which proves inconsequential. Harmond's closest tie is with Barlow, who through Wilsonian entanglements turns out to be family. In Radio Golf, such details don't add up, they simply pile up: Harmond knew Sterling in school, Harmond's twin brother died in Vietnam, his golf clubs are stolen from his car ...

Doing the right thing, Harmond realizes, will be costly and inconvenient, but his decision comes too easily; all the wisdom and moral authority belongs to Barlow.

Director Kenny Leon's production is similarly overstated: The opening strains of "Old Black Joe" give way to a cynical jazz interpretation of "America the Beautiful." David Gallo's massive set surrounds Harmond's storefront campaign office with vividly detailed urban decay, making the Hill's blight palpable.

Radio Golf, through April 8, McCarter Theatre, Matthews Stage, 91 University Place, Princeton, N.J., 609-258-2787, www.mccarter.org

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