Radio Golf

Mark Taper Forum
135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.
Through Sept. 18
Tuesday-Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 2:30 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sunday 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $34-$52
(213) 628-2772
www.TaperAhmanson.com

With Radio Golf, August Wilson concludes his landmark 10-play cycle chronicling the African American experience in the 20th century by looking to the future and posing some courageously probing questions about assimilation, self-loathing and success in the black community.

Wilson's monumental achievement of writing a play set in each decade of the 20th century ends in the 1990s, with the well-educated and ambitious businessman Harmond Wilks (a solid Rocky Carroll) looking to redevelop Pittsburgh's Hill District and become the city's first black mayor. His business partner, Roosevelt Hicks (the fierce James A. Williams), has a more severe case of 1990s money-hunger, cultivating an obsession with golf and a greedy drive for success and respect. Serving as a kind of Mephistopheles to Harmond's Faust, Roosevelt isn't above bullying or blurring the lines of truth to get what he wants.

When we first meet them, the two men are working to get the Hill District declared a "blight" so their construction plans can qualify for federal redevelopment money. Enter Elder Joseph Barlow (crafty Wilson veteran Anthony Chisholm), a squinting, barking, limping old man who turns out to be a classic Wilson street sage, forcing the others to face truths they didn't even know existed. Old Joe's revelations set Harmond on a collision course between his dreams of a prosperous future and the claims of a complex past.

Wilson mines the play's considerable conflict with breathtaking eloquence, crafting poetic monologues and scorching arguments that leave the characters wounded and the audience gasping. Director Kenny Leon wisely opts for no-nonsense staging, allowing the luscious, layered dialogue to take center stage. With the exception of a surprisingly stiff Denise Burse in the underwritten role of Harmond's wife, the cast is exceptional. John Earl Jelks, another Wilson veteran, shines as Sterling Johnson, the neighborhood handyman who declares war on the redevelopment project and delivers some of the play's most potent doses of wisdom.

Wilson fans will appreciate the many carefully woven threads that tie the play to the rest of his cycle; but even in the long shadow of the playwright's previous triumphs, Radio Golf stands on its own as an exquisitely crafted play enjoying a sparkling production. -- Christopher Cappiello

Buddies

Celebration Theatre
7051B Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.
Through Sept. 18
Thursday-Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m.
Tickets: $25
(323) 957-1884

Buddies, based on the novels of Ethan Mordden, follows the lives of several gay men in New York City from 1969 through the '90s. Writer and director Scott Smith uses a delicate hand with this adaptation of the popular series, creating a complete story out of fragmented moments that gives us an illuminating glimpse into an extraordinary time in gay culture.

The story centers on Bud (Hutchins Foster), the novels' narrator who is a semi-autobiographical sketch of Mordden himself. Foster grows increasingly engaging as he grows more comfortable in his role as the wry, witty writer who observes and records his friends' experiences. He frequently addresses the audience, which gives the sense of being invited into his living room to watch old home movies, and is also a good technique to fill in missing details and bridge some of the chronological gaps.

"Buddies is how you survive" is the group's mantra as they share cocktails, memories of their youth, and philosophical exchanges on being gay. Dennis Savage (Mark Davis) is Bud's free-spirited best friend who has a tendency to get himself into trouble, much to his friends' great amusement. When he takes on a youthful lover, a child-like boy nicknamed Little Kiwi (David Clark Smith), and holds onto him several years, he ceases to be the funny guy and becomes something much more sinister. Like Foster, Smith seems to grow more comfortable in his own skin over the course of the play, which plays well as he ages from nubile teen to a confident man. Carlo (a gorgeous Jon Woodward) and Big Steve (TL Kolman) complete the tiny clique as men who revel in the sexual freedom that they achieved after Stonewall.

Smith does an excellent job in balancing humor with intellectual musings on the gay experience. AIDS is always lingering somewhere in the shadows, but it only comes into the foreground in a few impactful moments without artificially pulling at the heartstrings. More central to this play is the exploration of what it is to be gay versus homosexual; part of a culture rather than just sexuality. Smith leaves no stone unturned, from weekends at Fire Island to houseboys to the joys of S&M; but what could have easily turned into two hours of banter and Cher jokes becomes humanized and complicated. This theme is further emphasized by the introduction of Cosgrove, the naive young boy who yearns to be a lover, a wife, and a son all wrapped up into one, and Dave (Kolman) who came out after 20 years of marriage. It's all a rather exaggerated version of real life -- certainly men are not only defined by their sexuality -- but Smith does well in capturing the essence of Mordden's works. -- Sarika Chawla