But is he in danger of embodying that pantheon’s flip side: Great Writers No One Will Admit They Don’t Enjoy? In short, he has joined the required-reading list of Great Writers You’re Supposed to Love. He is now taught in schools and embraced as a kind of American Shakespeare, with all the good and bad that implies: honor and reverence, but also ubiquity and sanctity. Since he died in 2005, his stature has only increased, with his name regularly appearing on annual lists of the nation’s most-produced playwrights, and his astounding legacy-a 10-play cycle about African-American life in each decade of the 20th century-is justly cited as a kind of literary and theatrical monument. If his plays did begin to strain with significance by the end, it was less because the acclaim had gone to his head than because of more mundane creative kinks: repetition, fatigue, a few creative blind alleys. Unlike others who have batted in that league-Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry, Tony Kushner-Wilson managed to keep his eyes resolutely focused on the stage, producing one of the strongest streaks of any American artist in any form. Most importantly, he did not let it stand in his way. Once August Wilson acquired the mantle of Great American Playwright, some time around the occasion of his 1987 Pulitzer and Tony awards for his drama “Fences,” he wore it proudly, occasionally self-consciously, but always with extraordinary grace. Class dismissed.Greatness does an artist no favors, at least not in two areas that count the most: the quality of the work they do while they are alive and their connection to audiences after they are gone. I hope you enjoyed learning about the Century Cycle if you didn’t know anything about it before. But if August Wilson could jump around in the century, I don’t see why Denzel Washington can’t, too. I applaud Denzel Washington for wanting to get every one of these stories out to a mainstream audience, but I kind of wish he started at the beginning, chronologically, and worked his way up. He has a lot of depth, and I could see him knocking this performance out of the park. But problems arise, and he starts to realize that maybe he’s kind of wiping out the history of the area, making him question his plans. The story concerns an Ivy-Leagued black man named Harmond Wilks who wants to start a new development in Pittsburgh, and also wants to be the first black Mayor in the city. It’s actually interesting that this story bookends the Cycle, as Gem of the Ocean, which begins the Cycle, was the penultimate play that Wilson wrote. Radio Golf is the last play in the Cycle and also the last play August Wilson ever wrote, as it was first performed in 2005, which is the same year that Wilson died. (Image credit: Red Bank Pulse) Radio Golf (1990s)

Fences 1987 full play