KING HEDLEY II: August Wilson

Tricycle Theatre: Tkts 020 7328 1000
Runs: 3h: one interval: till 8 February 2003
Tues-Fri 8pm, Wed 7pm £9-£16

Review: Ian Willox: Tricycle Theatre, 11th December 2002

Play of the Decade?
KING HEDLEY II contains some great acting and writing but delivers less than expected.

This is the eighth in August Wilson's ambitious attempt to write a cycle of ten plays covering the ten decades of the twentieth century documenting the journey of black Americans, as he says, from property to people. Previous plays in the cycle include MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM (a massive Broadway hit), FENCES (Broadway hit and Pulitzer Prize), and THE PIANO LESSON (another Pulitzer Prize). So when King Hedley II walks onto the stage at the Tricycle expectations are high.

The setting is a backyard in Pittsburgh in 1985. King has just served a seven year jail sentence for murder. He hopes one day to open his own video store. But he still carries a gun. Out of the blue con man Elmore in many ways the man King hopes to become arrives to court King's mother. And the guns and the stories begin to proliferate.

The language and the action is biblical Old Testament biblical: vivid, rhetorical, powerful and full of unforgiving vengence. Joseph Marcell gives a towering performance as the diminutive but dapper Elmore. Nicholas Monu is a raw, angry and scared King, desperate not to die a poor man, but faced with so few legitimate opportunities that even simple things like loving his wife and begetting a child are almost impossible.

Unfortunately that's it. Good parts. Good in parts. The three hours of compelling drama fail to cohere into a whole. But not for want of trying.

Tonya: Rakie Ayola
Ruby: Pat Bowie
Elmore: Joseph Marcell
King Hedley: Nicholas Monu
Mister: Eddie Nestor
Stool Pigeon: Stefan Kalipha

Director: Paulette Randall
Designer: Niki Turner
Lighting: Neil Austin

2002-12-13 09:38:50