KING HEDLEY II: Bham Rep till 7 December then Tricyle till 8 February

KING HEDLEY II: August Wilson
Bham Rep, The Door, till 7 December
(Then at the Tricycle Theatre, London 10 December 8 February 2003)
Runs: 3h, one interval

Review: Rod Dungate, Birmingham Rep, 19 December.

British premier of an immense play: as I write this review the next morning, I'm still feeling its effects.A small cast but an immense play. Wilson's play moves far beyond it's domestic setting and in its gigantic emotional sweep is like a Greek tragedy that, once set on its course at 7.30 moves inexorably on to its final terrible conclusion.

Its power lies not only in Wilson's wonderful text (which, appearing to move slowly, in fact covers a huge amount of ground) but in the way the production grabs the text and hurls it out into the audience. This all black company, working as a close-knit team, simply acts in a way you rarely see in this country. It's as if a fierce fire burns immediately the play starts (the characters all live dangerously on an emotional edge): the fire very occasionally smoulders but frequently explodes into all consuming flame.

Nowhere could this be clearer than when young wife Tonya (Rakie Ayola at her seething best) explodes explaining why she's going to abort her baby. In superb writing Wilson has her explain it by telling of an undertaker who is so busy with his work (implication with black people killing and being killed) that he has to take on extra staff and has no time to even note who he's burying. Ayola plays this long speech at full pelt, arms flailing, face twisted with anger and passion, a handbag incongruously tangling as she speaks. Here is a character momentarily out of control (the actor, of course, consummately in control all the time.)

King Hedley II (Nicholas Monu) is the centre of the story. Recently out of prison for killing a man who cut his face, he tries to make a living selling fridges. But his morality a product of his surroundings, we cannot apportion blame is twisted: he attempts, in a childlike way, to bring beauty into his life. When the past imposes itself on him he hasn't the emotional equipment to handle it: he destroys the beauty and all he knows. This character is flawed by his surroundings, he acts out his drama, not as a plaything of the Gods but as a plaything of a consumerist society. Monu presents us with many facets child, son, loving husband, grieving husband, bully: but however fast he leaps from one to the other, he never allows us to lose sight of Hedley's essential vulnerability. Perhaps Hedley's vulnerability is his real flaw.

Among this strong company I must mention Pat Bowie's Ruby (Hedley's mother.) In this highly charged production she appears so real. Whether chuckling, dancing, sorting out her men. She's a moment of bright elegance in her surroundings and in her final emotional outburst, fists pounding, heartbreaking.

Director Paulette Randall keeps her dramatic pot boiling dangerously fast with great skill to create an unusual and most revealing production.

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

Director: Paulette Randall
Design: Niki Turner
Lighting: Neil Austin
Fights: Nick Hall
Voice Work: William Connacher

2002-11-20 12:00:34