Peddling stolen refrigerators in the feeble hope of making enough money to open a video store, King Hedley, a man whose self worth is built on self delusion, is scraping in the dirt of an urban backyard trying to plant seeds where nothing will grow. Getting, spending, killing and dying in a world where getting is hard and killing is commonplace are threads woven into this 1980s installment in the American Century Cycle, August Wilson’s renowned cycle of plays about the Black experience in America. Drawing on characters established in Seven Guitars, King Hedley II shows the shadows of the past reaching into the present as King seeks retribution for a lie perpetrated by his mother regarding the identity of his father.
After premiering at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre in December 1999, King Hedley II opened on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre on 1 May 2001. Directed by Marion McClinton, the production featured Brian Stokes Mitchell, Leslie Uggams, Charles Brown, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Monté Russell.