The Playgoer: the August Wilson story

Custom Search

Saturday, August 27, 2005

the August Wilson story

In case you haven't heard yet, August Wilson has made the strange announcement that he's dying, basically. Apparently he has liver cancer, and it's gone undeteced for too long, and he says he has 3 months to live. If so, this is sad news. I must say, though, Wilson has been known to be an odd duck in interviews. (Or maybe this one just seems especially strange the way the Times almost tosses it away in their by-the-way "Arts Briefly" round-up column!) I don't mean to make light of it. Just another installment in a strange, yet brilliant man's always evolving biography. It also seems to come with the eerily perfect timing of the near completion of Radio Golf and the whole 10-play installment. Everyone, indeed, wondered what could Wilson do next.... On the other hand, this also calls to mind the great Stanley Kubirck's death, just days after completing a rough cut of Eyes Wide Shut, as if deliberately ignoring all warning signs of his health until he completed one last film.

Here's a more thorough piece on the Wilson announcement from his hometown Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (courtesy of my friend Norm Frisch).

No comments: