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Submitted by grkgal on December 4, 2006
Category: English
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Review of August Wilson's "Radio Golf"
"Radio Golf" (set in the 1990s) concludes August Wilson's' monumental 10-play cycle chronicling 100 years of black struggle, in the Hill District, a Pittsburgh ghetto. I found "Radio Golf" to be a rich, carefully wrought human tapestry that is colorful, playful, thoughtful and compelling. The cast at The Huntington Theatre also really drew me in to an amazing performance.
Harmond Wilks, "Radio Golf's" hero, is a well-to-do realtor and a Cornell graduate, on the verge of becoming Pittsburgh's first black mayor. He is all energy and optimism about the future of the Hill District. With his partner, Roosevelt Hicks, a bank VP also on the fast track to power and wealth, he wants to demolish parts of the Hill District and, with government assistance, build apartments. In addition, Hicks wants to teach lower-income African-American children how to play golf as a way of getting ahead in a white man's world.
Most of what we learn about Harmond comes from what other people say, including shorthand references to his being haunted by a brother who died in Vietnam. Since it is Harmond's moral progress that shapes the play, we need to be allowed to know him more from within - to hear, to use Mr. Wilson's conceit, the specific as well as the historic song that defines him.
Hicks begins to think about a business venture with Bernie Smith, a white man who is buying a radio station. The FCC is favoring purchases by minority owners and Hicks sees this as his "shot" so he can afford to leave the oppressive bank. Harmond looks at the flip side of the deal where it seems that Smith is using Hicks, but he is also happy for his friend who will do anything to get ahead. (Wilson uses some foreshadowing here, but we don't know it at the time.)
While waiting for the City to declare the Hill District blighted and get the funding they need, Wilks receives two visitors who will prove to be pivotal in the...
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