James A. Williams (Roosevelt), Hassan El-Amin (Harmond), and Michole Briana White (Mame Wilks) in the Huntington production |
He is missed. And he is mourned. Although playwright August Wilson, who passed away last October, will no longer be in his customary spot in the Huntington Theatre Company rehearsal hall, his presence pervades the preparation of Radio Golf. This final installment in his 10-play cycle chronicling the lives of African Americans in the 20th century premiered at Yale last May, has had several subsequent productions, and now becomes the first Wilson work to go up at the Huntington without him. Set in 1997, Radio Golf focuses on the upwardly mobile black middle class, a segment of the population Wilson had not previously put on stage.Principal characters are mayoral candidate Harmond Wilks, his publicist wife, Mame, and his golf-mad banker friend Roosevelt Hicks. Wilks and Hicks are scheming to renovate the Hill District in downtown Pittsburgh, an effort that requires the demolition of the house at 1839 Wylie — which happens to be the spiritual center of the Wilson cycle and the setting for his penultimate play, Gem of the Ocean. When the ownership of this magical house comes into question, dramatic forces are unleashed and larger questions emerge.
“How do you move forward with your future without tearing down your past?” asks director Kenny Leon, who has directed nine of Wilson’s plays including the Tony-nominated Gem of the Ocean at the Huntington and on Broadway. “We have this mentality in this country to tear down and build up, and we don’t think about the cultural traditions that we tear down.”
John Earl Jelks has appeared in numerous Wilson plays and portrayed Citizen Barlow in Gem in Boston and on Broadway. In Radio Golf, his Sterling is a forthright opponent of the planned development, a high-rise that will destroy a historic neighborhood. “Sterling isn’t driven by money,” Jelks explains. “August Wilson wrote what they call another version of the Bible. You have Genesis and you have Revelation. And this is our revelation.”
Wilson here remains a canny analyst of human behavior. His aspiring developers appear to offer progress and a sensible party line. “You got to have rule of law,” says Wilks. “Otherwise it would be chaos. Nobody wants to live in chaos.” But the playwright’s 1839 Wylie partisans have a valid case as well. “He wrote from the voices he knew, but at the same time it was universal,” says Jelks. And the fate of 1839 Wylie is a crucial piece of Wilson’s African-American story. “We have to embrace our past and move forward,” says Leon.
But moving forward without Wilson has been a struggle. “I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility and a huge weight without him here laughing and joking with me,” Leon sighs. “August was here and he gave his life to this cycle of work, and that was a tremendous weight. And when it was done, it was time for him to move on. I just think I have to get the play right. I can hear him saying, ‘I’ve done my part; you do your part.’ ”
RADIO GOLF | Huntington Theatre Company, Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston | September 8–October 15 | $15-$75 | 617.266.0800
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Huntington Theatre Company: www.huntingtontheatre.org
