About the Play:

Radio Golf is a full-length dramatic comedy by August Wilson. Follows a successful entrepreneur on his quest to revive his childhood neighbourhood and become the city's first black mayor. But when the past begins to catch up with him, secrets get revealed that could be his undoing.

Radio Golf is a bittersweet drama of assimilation and alienation set in 1997 in a storefront redevelopment office in Pittsburgh's Hill District. It traces the forces of change on a neighbourhood and its people caught between history and the twenty-first century. Boasting chain stores and luxury, Harmond Wilks' revitalization project will make him Pittsburgh's first black mayor. And his radio host partner advocates golf as deliverance in the era of Tiger Woods. But a hold-out on their real estate deal forces them to question their pathways to success. Radio Golf is the concluding play in in the author's renowned 10-play cycle chronicling the history of the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century – an unprecedented series that includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Fences and The Piano Lesson. Completed shortly after his death in 2005, it's a fast-paced, dynamic and wonderfully funny work about the world today and the dreams we have for the future.

Radio Golf premiered in 2005 at the Yale Repertory Theatre and opened on Broadway in 2007 at the Cort Theatre in New York City. The play enjoyed widespread acceptance among leading regional theatres, and has become a popular choice for high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 4 male

What people say:

"Surprising, suspenseful and crowd-rousing. The final play in August Wilson's magnificent cycle has crackling comedy, engaging snap and theatrical zest. In Mr. Wilson's world, the song, it seems, hasn't ended, after all." — New York Times

"Mesmerizing.... Full of powerful images that convey the darkly comic dialogue between hope and hopelessness in African American life." — New York Daily News

"Gorgeous writing with a big heart! Not only is this Wilson's most contemporary work. It is also his most accessible and most unambiguously political — an urgent call to remember what the 20th century has done to these people and its community." — New York Newsday

"The dialogue crackles with the poetry and fierce conscience that made Wilson one of this country's most essential artists." — USA Today

"It's hard not to feel the tug of emotion as the curtain rises on Radio Golf, the final play in b>August Wilson's astounding 10-play cycle. It may be the clearest and most accessible of the lot, and the most rewarding. Watching, one ponders who will fill Wilson's shoes — will anybody be so fearless and unflinching about the realities of black life in America? One doubts it." — The Journal News

"Radio Golf brings the titanic undertaking of a great playwright to a conclusion, with some of Wilson's characteristically vibrant arias." — Variety

"Radio Golf brings Wilson's amazing 10-play journey to an emotional, hopeful conclusion. The play's prime speeches are classic examples of Wilson's expansive, lyrical and frequently very funny style." — Associated Press

"With wit and soul, Radio Golf brings to a close the most ambitious theatrical undertaking in the history of American theater." — New York Sun

"Capping a monumental achievement by one of America's most insightful playwrights, Radio Golf is a swift, engrossing drama brimming with Wilson's characteristic wisdom and humor." — USA Today

"The culmination of one of the great achievement in the history of American theater. Extremely funny, with wonderful characters and pungent dialogue. Radio Golf is a fitting conclusion to Wilson's master plan, a work that clearly, passionately and wisely states the author's themes." — The Record

About the Playwright:

August Wilson (1945-2005) was an African-American playwright who depicted the human condition like no other playwright of his time. His legacy lives on through his crowning achievement: The Pittsburgh Cycle of 10 plays chronicling the African American experience, each set in a different decade of the 20th century. All of them are set in Pittsburgh's Hill District except for one, which is set in Chicago. The cycle is also known as his Century Cycle. Crafted over nearly 25 years, these works garnered August Wilson a myriad accolades, including eight New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, a Tony Award and two Pulitzer Prizes.