[NEohioPAL] Review of "Radio Golf" at Cleveland Play House

[Bob Abelman]

Black by popular demand, August Wilson at Cleveland Play House

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 2/24/12

 

"Radio Golf," the current Cleveland Play House production at the Allen Theatre, is the final installment of August Wilson's 10-play series that chronicle African-American life, decade by decade, throughout the 20th century. 

 

Set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, as are most of these plays, "Radio Golf" takes place in 1997 after The Hill has fallen victim to urban decay and suburban flight.  Enter Harmond Wilks (James Craven), a likable Cornell-educated real estate developer who grew up in this neighborhood and has returned to organize a multi-million dollar renewal and gentrification project and, on its coattails, become the city's first Black mayor.

 

Self-assured and idealistic, Harmond, his wife and pr manager Mame (Austene Van), and his best friend and business partner Roosevelt Hicks (David Alan Anderson) have lost their way. Their blind pursuit of success, as defined by White society, has removed them from core African American cultural values and erased any connection they had to the historic neighborhood they are about to destroy. 

 

To date, the CPH has staged five plays in the series, including "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" in 1985, "Fences" in 1990, "Two Trains Running" in 2000, "The Piano Lesson" in 2005, and now "Radio Golf". and always during Black History Month.  In popular demand during the 28 days of February, Wilson's Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning works surely stand on their own artistic merits and are production-worthy throughout the calendar year.    

 

"Radio Golf," in particular, is a fine piece of storytelling, and as poetic as it is profound.  In it we find that the local itinerants and illiterates-the crazy vagrant Elder Joseph Barlow (Abdul Salaam El Razzac) and the unemployed construction worker Sterling Johnson (Terry Bellamy)-are the ones who speak eloquently, philosophically, and with sage wisdom.  Their words possess the rhythm and weight sorely missing from the empty corporate-speak of the intrusive outsiders.  

 

This play is also as clever as it is caustic, chastising underachieving "Ni**ers" (Roosevelt's word) for blaming overachievers for their failures, while simultaneously criticizing overachieving "Negroes" (Sterling's word) for blaming the White man for their failures while desperately trying to be the White man.  

 

As good as "Radio Golf" is, it is the thinnest of Wilson's works, lacking some of the creative infrastructure and organic energy found in earlier pieces.  And, despite its intriguing characters and unique perspective, this play follows a familiar and well-traveled path, for it is a Faustian tale pure and simple.  The battle for our Everyman's soul in Act 1 unfolds as predictably as does his growing a conscience in Act 2.  

 

It is in Act 2 that the play takes an abrupt turn and risks giving the audience the bends as it suddenly decompresses and becomes melodramatic.  It is also at this time that some strange stage behavior surfaces after otherwise stellar performances by all the players.

 

As a co-production between Cleveland Play House and Indiana Repertory Theatre, "Radio Golf" first opened in Indianapolis, where certain acting choices seem to have been tried, rewarded, and solidified.  In particular, Sterling's holier-than-though pronouncements are oddly addressed to the audience as if the actor, a wonderful Terry Bellamy, was anticipating a reaction that simply does not surface from the Cleveland crowd.  James Craven's portrayal of Harmond at the end of his rope is equally broad and awkwardly stagey. 

 

Aside from these occurrences, director Lou Bellamy keeps the action moving fluidly and naturally, and is successful at making the play's many, many short scenes fit together and flow.  No stranger to Wilson's work, Bellamy does a wonderful job of bringing out all the delicate comedy woven into this drama, and uses Vicki Smith's magnificent set-a decaying office space surrounded by the squalor of abandoned businesses, boarded up windows, and ghetto graffiti-to full dramatic advantage.

 

All in all, this is a very interesting, moving work no matter where it is delivered and no matter during what month.   

 

"Radio Golf" continues through March 4 in Cleveland Play House's Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare.  For tickets, which range from $49 to $69, call 216-241-6000 or visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com.   
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