London theatre regulars Joseph Marcell and Danny Sapani will lead the cast of Radio Golf when it opens at the Tricycle theatre in October.
Marcell and Sapani are joined in the Paulette Randall-directed production by Roger Griffiths, Julie Saunders and Ray Shell.
Radio Golf is the sixth of August Wilson’s cycle of 10 plays documenting the 20th century African-American experience to be staged at Kilburn’s Tricycle theatre. Wilson’s plays each take a decade of the 1900s to explore. Radio Golf, the final play of the cycle, focuses on life in the 1990s.
Set in Pittsburgh, at a time when Tiger Woods has already become a hero to African-Americans, Radio Golf chronicles the rise of Harmond Wilks, an upwardly mobile, charming and powerful property developer with political ambitions. The revitalisation of the decrepit Hill District seems a flawless path to his becoming the city’s first black mayor, but a suspect radio station investment and the slated demolition of a historic building force Wilks to question the pathway to progress.
Among Wilson’s other plays to be staged at the Tricycle theatre are Joe Turner’s Come And Gone, Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II and Gem Of The Ocean, which also starred Marcell, who plays Elder Joseph Brownlow in Radio Golf.
Marcell is currently appearing in Let There Be Love at the Tricycle, reprising his role in Kwame Kwei-Armah’s comedy which was originally seen earlier this year. Among his other stage roles are Coriolanus and Under The Black Flag at Shakespeare’s Globe, though he is best known for playing dry-witted, long-suffering butler Geoffrey in American comedy series The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air.
Sapani (Wilks) has been almost ever present on the London stage in recent years, appearing in, among others, Big White Fog, Tiata Delights (Almeida), The Overwhelming and His Dark Materials (National Theatre). Following Radio Golf, he will star in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Wig Out! at the Royal Court.
Saunders’s theatre credits include appearances at the Bush theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company, while Griffiths has appeared at the National Theatre as well as in films including Batman Begins, Buffalo Soldiers and Greenwich Mean Time. Shell has worked extensively at the Tricycle and has appeared in West End musicals Gone With The Wind, Dancing In The Streets, 125th Street and The Lion King.
Radio Golf runs at the Tricycle theatre between 2 October and 1 November (press night 6 October).
MA