August Wilson's King Hedley II
- Full Length Play, Drama, 1980s
- 4M, 2F
- ISBN: 9780573704758
"Grand [with] some of the finest monologues ever written for an American stage, speeches that build gritty, often brutal details into fiery patterns of insight... You may feel the scorch of lightening."
The New York Times
Description
- Full Length Play
- Drama
- 120 minutes
- Time Period: 1980s
- Target Audience: Adult
- Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings, Exterior Set
- Cautions: Alcohol, Mild Adult Themes, Strong Language, Smoking
- Performance Group:
- College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre, Professional Theatre
- Accolades:
- Finalist! Pulitzer Prize in Drama (2000)
August Wilson is the recipient of the 1986 Whiting Award for Drama
Getting, spending, killing and dying in a world where getting is hard and killing is commonplace are threads woven into this 1980's installment in the author'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.
REVIEWS:
"Grand [with] some of the finest monologues ever written for an American stage, speeches that build gritty, often brutal details into fiery patterns of insight... You may feel the scorch of lightening."
The New York Times
"Mesmerizing... Full of powerful images that convey the darkly comic dialogue between hope and hopelessness in African American life."
New York Daily News
"Exhilarating... Wilson has endowed his struggling souls with a metaphysical grandeur and a titanic vigor of language that is like no other dramatist's. He takes the idea of tragedy and the common man to Olympian heights... [and] boldly tackles the big philosophical questions most contemporary playwrights shrink form. He articulates these questions with grounding, often witty detail and in an inner city vernacular that soars into both unabashed lyricism and earthy anecdote... There is no denying the transporting, natural music of Hedley an phrases from it haunt the moment."
The New York Times
Characters
- Casting: 4M, 2F
- Casting Attributes: Role(s) for Black Actor(s)
RUBY - King's mother, former big band singer who recently moved back to Pittsburgh. Sixties.
MISTER - King's best friend since grade school and sometimes business partner. Thirties.
ELMORE - Ruby's longtime, but sporadic flame. A professional hustler. Sixties.
TONYA - King's wife of a few years. Thirties.
STOOL PIGEON - King's next-door neighbor. The Hill's spiritual and practical truthsayer. Late sixties.
Available Material
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August Wilson's King Hedley II Script
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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 scarping in the dirt of an urban backyard trying to plant seeds where nothing will grow. |
$24.95 |
