Round House Theatre: Radio Golf

For those who don't know, August Wilson is an African American playwright who devoted the lion's share of his life and talent to the creation of a series of plays that has come to be called the "The Pittsburgh Cycle" (although the first one is actually set in Chicago...).  They represent a snapshot in the lives of African Americans living in the Steel City.  From play to play members of an extended cast and their relatives make appearances.  A couple of these works have attained some wider acclaim and been made into feature length motion pictures: "Fences," "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," and I think maybe "The Piano Lesson."  The ten plays were written out of chronological order, and the earliest works were revisited and reworked as others were completed and debuted.  My goal is to see all of them performed on stage.  To date, I have seen Jitney, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, Seven Guitars, Gem of the Ocean, and Radio Golf.  As of this evening, Radio Golf is the first one I've seen twice.  It has up-ended my thinking about not just seeing each once, but seeing them over and over again whenever I have the opportunity.
The first time I saw Radio Golf was in the autumn of 2019.  It was a production presented by Everyman Theatre in Baltimore.  Anyone who follows my theater adventures knows that I love Everyman.  They are hands down the premier repertory theatre company in the DMV.  You will be hard pressed to find a production of theirs that I do not enjoy.  And I enjoyed their presentation of Radio Golf.  It was good.  It left me thinking that Radio Golf was a good play.  Not as good as Gem of the Ocean, or the reworked Jitney, but good.   

Tonight, that assessment was utterly up-ended.  Radio Golf is an excellent play.  It's five member cast represents not simply a range of heroic archetypes, but perhaps the most fully fleshed out set of characters in any of his plays that I've seen thus far.  It took this group of amazingly talented, strong, and dedicated actors to bring what Wilson had written to fully fleshed out life.  They're collective work is one of the finest examples of ensemble synergy that I can recall in recent productions.

It is interesting to note that my previous favorite Wilson play was Gem of the Ocean also staged at Round House Theatre in back in December of 2018. Round House seems to truly "get" Wilson.  It's also interesting that the first time I experienced the talents of two of the five actors in this production (Craig Wallace and Jaben Early) was in the February 2016 production of "Fathers Come Home from Wars: Parts 1, 2, & 3" at Round House.  Since then I've seen both men in nearly 20 other plays, and I can say with confidence, this was their moment to shine.  Jaben Early played Harmond Wilkes, a man propelled by others toward power who suddenly discovered that power without integrity is meaningless.  Early embodied the character with a stoic sensibility driven to please others that unraveled organically under the pressure of his inner desire to become himself even if it meant disappointing his closest friend and cherished wife. As the "magical" fulcrum to the plots twists, Wallace was just fucking pitch perfect!  Craig Wallace is an actor's actor.  I feel like you could tell him to be a paper bag, and before you knew it, you'd be carrying him home with the false assumption that he was filled with milk, eggs, and veggies!   

As to the other members of the ensemble, a word for each:  First, Kevin Mambo as Sterling Johnson the scrappy common man with a troubled past and a degree of common sense most uncommon was intense and vulnerable, delivering a perspective that jumped sides and allegiances with a commitment to his character's through line.   

Second, Renee Elizabeth Wilson in the role of Mame Wilkes entered with all the power of category 5 hurricane only to be tempered by her husband's transformations until the only question of the table, the only option left to her was loyalty versus personhood, and she adeptly found the middle ground.  Outstanding!

Third, was Ro Boddie's take on Roosevelt Hicks, the ambitious and ruthless business partner of Harmond Wilkes.  It would be easy to play this character succinctly to type.  There is enough there to find the perfect villain.  But that would be a big mistake, and Ro Boddie didn't make it.  As much as he is cast in the role of race toady, and heartless greedy money monger, he found the humanity in Roosevelt.  And everything else in this play was elevated because of this.  

If Everyman Theatre's production was a B+, Round Houses was an A+!  I felt like I was experiencing a nearly entirely different play.  The set was both simple and complex.  The use of the floating ceiling on perspective gave the larger sense of characters trapped in a box, forced to wrangle out the truth together.

Unfortunately, there are no press photos to share, the show having just opened this past Wednesday evening. On stage through July 2nd, I can say, it's more than worth the price of admission.