Radio Golf Book

Radio Golf, the tenth and final entry in August Wilson's "Pittsburgh Cycle," and Wilson's final plays, marks a fitting ending both to an award-winning cycle and an illustrious career. Although it lacks the expressionist daring, the resonant music, and the larger-than-life characters that grace many of the other nine plays, it benefits from a tight dramatic structure, a keen sense of the ironies of city politics, shrewd observations of the black middle class, and'as always, with Wilson'superb realistic dialog and a profound grasp of heritage and history.

It tells the story of Harmond Wilks, a successful real estate developer and aspiring candidate for mayor. He is putting the finishing touches on a grand building project he hopes will revitalize Pittsburgh's black Hill District'two upscale high-rise apartment buildings, with room for a Whole Foods, a Barnes and Noble, and a Starbucks'but he has to wait for two things: 1) for the area to be designated as "blighted" (which will free up some government money), and 2) for the demolition of the only remaining old house, 1839 Wylie Street (the home of the spiritual mother of the district, Aunt Ester, well known to those familiar with the Pittsburgh Cycle). Although the "blighted" designation is almost certain to come through, there is a problem with the demolition. Old Joe Barlow has started to paint the rundown house on Wylie; he claims old Ester's house is his.

I liked this play very much. True, the dialog isn't as lyrical as in many other Wilson plays, but that is because Wilson wishes us to see that the black middle class characters who dominate'or attempt to dominate'the action have lost much of the music and poetry and once filled the souls of their fathers and mothers. Radio Golf is a successful'though somewhat melancholy'conclusion to the Cycle, yet it leaves its audience with much to think about.

I'll leave you with a taste of the dialogue. Here Old Joe Barlow is discussing with Harmond Wilks the nature of the American Dream: HARMOND: This is America. This is the land of opportunity. I can be mayor. I can be anything I want.

OLD JOE: But you got to have the right quarter. America is a giant slot machine. You walk up and put in your coin and it spits it back out. You look at your coin. You think maybe it's a Canadian quarter. It's the only coin you got. If this coin ain't no good then you out of luck. You look at it and sure enough it's an American quarter. But it don't spend for you. It spend for everybody else but it don't spend for you. The machine spits it right back out. Is the problem with the quarter or with the machine? Do you know? Somebody running for mayor ought to know that.

HARMOND: If it don't take all the quarters you fix it. Anybody with common sense will agree to that. What they don't agree on is how to fix it. Some people say you got to tear it down to fix it. Some people say you got to build it up to fix it. Some people say they don't know how to fix it. Some people say they don't want to be bothered with fixing it. You mix them all into a pot and stir it up and you get America. That's what makes this country great.

OLD JOE: I say get a new machine. What you say?

A fitting conclusion to August Wilson's Century Cycle. Radio Golf was the 10th and last play of the series. I really liked how it harkened back to Gem of the Ocean, Two Trains Running, and King Hedley II. Aunt Ester's presence still lives on in this play. This play focuses on topics such as black political leadership, respectability politics, and gentrification. Lastly I enjoyed how the dialogue was different compared to the previous plays. The diction was a mix of slang from the past to more everyday talk which more or less speaks to issues of class between some of the characters in this play. The conclusion is left up to the reader's interpretation which I usually don't like but I think Wilson gives us a taste for how he wants it to end.


The Century Cycle overall review: all 10 plays were good but I think Fences and Radio Golf were the best. Fences is the best as a stand alone play and Radio Golf because of how it pulls from the other plays to conclude the series. I highly recommend that you read Wilson's Century Cycle.