A Noise Within follows the absolutely fabulous Animal Farm with August Wilson’s most accessible play since Fences, the powerful, gripping, and often unexpectedly comedic Radio Golf.

The final chapter in Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, the 21st-century-relevant Radio Golf focuses on a new class of Wilson protagonists, college-educated, comfortably off, entrepreneurial African-Americans who have made it in the white world.

Real estate developer Harmond Wilks (Christian Telesmar) is a front runner to become Pittsburgh’s first black mayor in the city’s upcoming elections. His wife Mame (Sydney A. Mason) is not only her husband’s campaign manager, she’s in line to become the Pennsylvania governor’s press rep. And Harmond’s best friend Roosevelt Hicks (DeJuan Christopher) has recently been promoted to vice president of a major local bank.

Harmond and Roosevelt’s latest collaborative business venture—the construction of a brand spanking new apartment complex (complete with a Barnes & Noble and a Starbucks) in the historic but crumbling Hill District—faces complications when longtime Hill District resident Elder Joseph Barlow (Alex Morris), aka Old Joe, shows up at Harmond’s campaign headquarters claiming to be the owner of one of the houses set for demolition, property which he believes the city has bought unlawfully.

When Harmond discovers that the city’s purchase of 1839 Wylie Street may indeed have been illegal, he is faced with the moral quandary of whether to go ahead with the apartment complex as planned or come up with a solution that will permit the house to remain standing even if that means going against his business partner’s wishes, even if it puts both his mayoral campaign and his wife’s likely job offer in jeopardy.

While Old Joe and the play’s fifth character, ex-con turned independent contractor Sterling Johnson (Matt Orduña), could just as easily have figured in one of Wilson’s nine previous Pittsburgh plays (and indeed Sterling’s 1969 self was the chief protagonist of Seven Guitars), the same cannot be said for the Wilkses and Roosevelt, products of post-1960s societal changes that allowed some, if not many, African Americans to rise to positions of power in business and politics, thereby creating conflicts between haves and have nots that would have been virtually unimaginable a few decades earlier.

New York critics may have found fault with Radio Golf for lacking the “mystique” and the “poetry” of his earlier plays, but it’s precisely for this reason that Pittsburgh Play 10.0 works for me in ways that last year’s overly long, overly mystical Seven Guitars did not.

What I could not fault in that production was Gregg T. Daniel’s spot-on direction or the performances he elicited from an all-around superb cast, two of whom are part of Radio Golf’s equally splendid ensemble.

In his biggest and most prestigious role to date, rising LA stage star Telesmar burns slowly and deliberately in scenes leading up to the explosive force of his climactic moments in a performance that packs a powerful punch.

An absolutely terrific Mason once again proves herself one to watch as the initially supportive, then markedly less so Mame, and Christopher is on fire as the success-at-any-cost Roosevelt.

Last but definitely not least, playwright Wilson gives the play’s most colorful (and Wilsonesque) roles to Orduña, who steals every scene he’s in as the tell-it-like-it-is Sterling, and to Morris, who rightfully earns not one but two rounds of mid-show applause as Old Joe, a character so colorful, clever, and downright hilarious, pretty much everyone else pales by comparison.

A Noise Within once again delivers on the design front. Sibyl Wickersheimer’s campaign headquarters set morphs in subtle but significant ways as the play progresses, thanks in large part to properties designer Shen Heckel. Mylette Nora’s costumes are both period and character-perfect, with special snaps to Mame’s glamorous, stylish dresses and some snazzy business suits. Brandon Baruch’s dramatic lighting and Jeff Gardner’s pulsating sound design add to the excitement and suspense, with Shelia Dorn’s hair and wigs completing a Grade A design package.

Chiquita Melvin, Lester Purry, Evan Lewis Smith, and Kelcey Watson are understudies.

Miranda Johnson-Haddad is dramaturg. Kendyl Powell is assistant director. Taylor Anne Cullen is production stage manager and Karin Naono is assistant stage manager. Jesus Hurtado is assistant scenic designer. Andrea Odinov is dialect coach. Fiona Jessup is light board operator. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

I’ve now reviewed half of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle plays, and the Arthur Milleresque Radio Golf may well be my favorite. It grabbed my attention from the get-go and never once let go,

A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Blvd, Pasadena.
www.ANoiseWithin.org

–Steven Stanley
October 22, 2022
Photos: Craig Schwartz

Tags: A Noise Within, August Wilson, Los Angeles Theater Review