Photo Flash: August Wilson's 'Radio Golf' at the Tricycle

Paulette Randall will direct the British premiere of August Wilson's Radio Golf running at the Tricycle from 2 October – 1 November, with press night on 6 October at 7pm.  Radio Golf is designed by Libby Watson with lighting by Matthew Eagland and sound design by Al Ashford.

Set in the United States, Radio Golf is the last in Wilson's cycle of ten plays that examines the African-American experience in the 20th Century. Each play tackles a decade and Radio Golf, the final play in the cycle, focuses on the 1990's.

The cast is Roger Griffiths (Roosevelt Hicks), Joseph Marcell (Elder Joseph Barlow), Danny Sapani (Harmond Wilks), Julie Saunders (Mame Wilks) and Ray Shell (Sterling Johnson).

Radio Golf completed August Wilson's cycle of ten plays documenting the 20th Century African-American Experience and received its World premiere at the Yale Repertory Theatre directed by Timothy Douglas in 2005 just before Wilson's untimely death.  Radio Golf received its Broadway premiere in 2007 at the Cort Theater and was named Best American Play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle and is the recipient of four 2007 Tony Award nominations.  Radio Golf will be the sixth play in the cycle that the Tricycle will have premiered immediately after their Broadway runs with previous plays being Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II and Gem of the Ocean.

Roger Griffiths' theatre credits include England is De Place For Me at the Albany Theatre, Oh Babylon and Job Rocking for Riverside Studios, Macbeth for The National Theatre and Black Poppies for The National Theatre Studio.  His screen credits include films Batman Begins, Buffalo Soldiers, Tube Tales and Greenwich Mean Time and television credits include Doctor Who, My Family, EastEnders and Holby City.

Joseph Marcell will this week complete a run at the Tricycle Theatre playing the lead in the revival of Kwame Kwei-Armah's Let There be Love.  He was previously part of the Tricycle's 2006 African-American Season appearing in Walk Hard Talk Loud and Gem of the Ocean.  Other recent stage credits include Breakfast with Mugabe at Bath Ustinov Theatre, Coriolanus and Under the Black Flag at the Globe and numerous productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company including Crates and Barrels, Our Friends from the North and The Brothers Menechimi.  He also works regularly with the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C.  His screen credits include Rough Crossing, EastEnders, Jericho and The Professionals.  He is best known on television for playing Geoffrey in long running series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air alongside Will Smith.

Danny Sapani's stage credits include Big White Fog for The Almeida Theatre, The Overwhelming, His Dark Materials, Antony and Cleopatra, The Machine Wreckers and Richard II for The National Theatre, To the Green Fields Beyond for the Donmar Warehouse and Neverland for the Royal Court.  His screen credits include The Bill, Holby Blue and The Oxford Murders.   Following his run in Radio Golf, Sapani can be seen at the Royal Court in Tarell Alvin McCraney's Wig Out! directed by Dominic Cooke.

Julie Saunder's theatre credits include Goldhawk Road and Raising Fires for the Bush Theatre and Troilus and Cressida, The Last Days of Don Juan and A Woman of No Importance for the Royal Shakespeare Company plus numerous productions for the Citizen's Theatre.  Her screen credits include a regular role in Emmerdale as D.I. Kara Warren and guest leads in The Bill, Between the Lines and The Chief.

Ray Shell's stage credits include Gone with the Wind at the New London Theatre, Dancing in the Streets at the Cambridge Theatre, 125th Street at the Shaftesbury Theatre and The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre.  His previous Tricycle credits are Blues for Mr Charlie, Wine in the Wilderness, The Amen Corner, Two Trains Running, Ain't Misbehavin' and Iced, which he also wrote.  His screen credits include Hotel, Too Much Sun and The Velvet Goldmine.

Radio Golf will be the fourth August Wilson play that Paulette Randall has directed for the Tricycle Theatre after The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running and King Hedley II (in a co-production with Birmingham Rep).  Her other theatre credits include What's In The Cat for Contact Theatre, Manchester and the Royal Court Upstairs, Funny Black Women On The Edge and Shoot To Win for the Theatre Royal Stratford East and The Amen Corner for Bristol Old Vic.  Randall was Artistic Director of Talawa Theatre Company from 2003 -2005, for whom she directed productions of Urban Afro Saxons (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Blest Be The Tie (Royal Court), Abena's Stupidest Mistake (Drill Hall), Blues for Mr Charlie (New Wolsey Ipswich and the Tricycle Theatre) and High Heel Parrotfish (Stratford East).

For more information please visit www.tricycle.co.uk

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Julie Saunders

 

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Joseph Marcel

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Danny Sapani and Roger Griffiths

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Danny Sapani and Roger Griffiths

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Danny Sapani and Julie Saunders

Photo by John Haynes