{"id":311341,"date":"2025-10-17T18:09:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/311341\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:09:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:09:22","slug":"universal-truths-about-human-nature-uncovered-in-combustible-king-hedley-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/311341\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal truths about human nature uncovered in combustible \u2018King Hedley II\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early in August Wilson\u2019s King Hedley II, the title character\u2019s mother criticizes the dirt he\u2019s using to plant a garden. It\u2019s a recurring metaphor for the play\u2019s financially and spiritually oppressed characters. Can they find a way to grow out of their difficult backgrounds with the odds stacked against them?<\/p>\n

The gritty production by Soul Rep Theatre and Bishop Art Theatre Center of the ninth of Wilson\u2019s 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle — each representing a decade in 20th century African <\/p>\n

American history as experienced in the city\u2019s Hill District — doesn\u2019t provide easy answers.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Diane<\/p>\n

News Roundups<\/p>\n

Catch up on the day’s news you need to know.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, it presents a landscape of tough yet vulnerable people mostly trying to do the right thing in President Ronald Reagan\u2019s crack-torn America, circa 1985, never asking the audience to feel sorry for them or their struggles. Music from gospel to hip-hop serves as a historical connector.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

From left, Jerrold Trice, Anyika McMillan-Herod, Brian Gibson and Jamal Sterling in a scene from Soul Rep Theatre and Bishop Arts Theatre Center’s production of “King Hedley II,” the ninth of August Wilson’s 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle.<\/p>\n

Anyika McMillan-Herod<\/p>\n

What\u2019s ultimately brilliant about King Hedley II is how it uses its specific setting and circumstances to uncover universal truths about human nature and the resilience it takes to cope with the mysteries of life, especially the question of what motivates our feelings and behavior. Secrets of the kind that can plague any family come spilling out at just the wrong time.<\/p>\n

Seen at last Sunday\u2019s matinee, these ideas were elevated by an accomplished cast, starting with Dennis Raveneau as Stool Pigeon, an older neighbor of the Hedleys given to the kind of religious philosophizing that can sound like the rants of an unhinged lunatic. As the play turns darker, his outsized musings ring more and more true.<\/p>\n

King Hedley II is a kind of sequel to Wilson\u2019s Seven Guitars, set in 1948. It featured younger versions of Stool Pigeon and King\u2019s mother, Ruby, here played with understated matter-of-factness by Soul Rep co-founder Anyika McMillan-Herod. Ruby\u2019s been around and seen it all.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The dice are loaded in Soul Rep Theatre and Bishop Arts Theatre Center’s production of “King Hedley II.”<\/p>\n

Anyika McMillan-Herod<\/p>\n

Still, like everyone else, she\u2019s trying to rise above her station even as she\u2019s dealing with the latest indignity: the disconnection of her phone line for nonpayment. King (a seething Brian Gibson) has just arrived home from a seven-year prison sentence for killing a man who slashed his face with a razor. His wife, Tonya, (put-upon Olivia Lewis) is Ruby\u2019s flip side. She\u2019s seen too much.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Clockwise<\/p>\n

King has dreams of opening a video store with his friend Mister (a confident Jamal Sterling). They\u2019re selling likely hot refrigerators to raise the money. A quicker get-rich scheme proves just as futile. Enter huckster Elmore (gregarious Jerrold Trice) wielding a pair of loaded dice and history with Ruby.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a combustible package that builds over the play\u2019s three-hour, 20-minute length, including one intermission. Credit director Jamal McNeil, who grew up in Pittsburgh and was part of Wilson\u2019s theater troupe as a child, for keeping the action moving at a pace that doesn\u2019t allow the audience to get restless or bored.<\/p>\n

Chekhov once famously said the appearance of a gun in the first act portends that it will go off in the second. King Hedley II contains three or four, including a supposedly concealable Derringer that creates some of the play\u2019s gallows humor. You can just imagine how this tale of woe will end.<\/p>\n

Details<\/b><\/p>\n

Through Oct. 26 at Bishop Arts Theatre Center, 215 S. Tyler St. $20-$30. soulrep.org<\/a>. bishopartstheatre.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n