King Hedley II is Luminous

As King Hedley II, Lester Purry slogs urgently onto the Penumbra Theatre stage through the audience, moving like some conquering warrior hungry for a meal. He is freshly sprung from jail, and he wants to open a video store.

But his past -- mythic and petty criminal -- marks him. King is the spiritual son of King Hedley, the pan-Africanist firebrand of August Wilson's "Seven Guitars." He is engaged in life-and-death struggles, with a scar to prove it. The slash down the left side of his face has left him with a glass eye. He looks like a bogeyman at the crossroads -- a bad character like Stagger Lee.

As Purry haunts the stage, in a performance superior to the version that opened Chicago's new Goodman Theatre in fall 2000, he gives us a magnetic, scary character. King Hedley has come home to make a life, and the air at Penumbra will be forever disturbed.

Welcome to Wilson's Pittsburgh, 1985, a brooding place of sweet and rascally talk, of colorful poetry, of witty mysticism and unwitting murder. The tragedy, which concludes Penumbra Theatre's all-Wilson season, is large and overlong. But the acting is luminous from a six-member ensemble that includes the powerfully charismatic Ernie Hudson, stately San Franciscan Rhodessa Jones and local powerhouse Tonia Jackson.

"King Hedley" is Wilson's most dramaturgically unresolved and vexing play, with mythic and real-time plot lines that too often fail to connect. It meanders. It repeats like a hard-of-hearing parent. I hope that the playwright will return to rework "Hedley" the way he honed "Jitney" into an ensemble masterwork.

"Hedley" is about a young man alienated from the nourishing aspects of his past. Who will save King from his self-destructive course? Certainly not his friend Mister (David Alan Anderson), his partner in the sale of hot refrigerators. Not the mother -- blues singer Ruby (Jones) -- for whom he bears latent resentment. Not his girlfriend, Tonya (Jackson), who is pregnant and wants to have an abortion because she does not want to bring a baby into this corrupt, crazy world. And certainly not Elmore, the old hustler (Hudson) who has been carrying a torch for Ruby for more than 30 years and who knows the secret of King's true patrimony.

Aunt Ester, the mythical figure born in 1619 -- the year the first known Africans arrived in America -- dies in this play, as if Wilson is saying that this period represents the death of black history.

"Hedley" is also peopled by Stool Pigeon (James Craven), the now aged harmonica player in Wilson's earlier play, "Seven Guitars." Stool Pigeon is now a newspaper-collecting history carrier. Mister is the son of Red Carter in "Guitars." His father named him so that people will address his son with respect.

Director Lou Bellamy has clarified the work. He and his cast, even with opening-night nervousness, have found the organic humor in it. He has created something that is indelible for those who experience it, layering the production with West African religious symbolism.

Purry gives a spellbinding performance. Handsome and charismatic, he could easily resort to a pretty-boy persona, yet he shows commitment here as the hard and hardening King, who has a cross tattooed to the back of his neck. That cross is a symbol of his burden, but also a sign of a target.

Like his character, Hudson steals the show. Elmore is butter-smooth, and Hudson, who is terrific, plays the role with the sure stretch of a lion after a yawn, even if he mugs a tad too much (when he is supposed to be talking to Ruby, he's looking at the audience).

Jackson, who has the memorable abortion speech in "Hedley," delivers with a passion that threatens to spiral out of control. Craven has been carving out a specialty playing crazy. In "Two Trains Running," he played a stuttering, fixated Hambone, whose only line was "I want my ham." As a gravelly-voiced, Bible-quoting community historian Stool Pigeon, he is crotchety, crazy and memorable.

Stool Pigeon says that King is an eagle without wings, yet he wants to perch on mountaintops. It is an arduous, rocky climb for King,with dubious prospects. But Bellamy and his cast have given lift to a very heavy play, strongly concluding Penumbra's 25th anniversary season.

There are many things to admire in August Wilson's King Hedley II, which opened last night at the Virginia Theatre; its capable cast and the script's vital social insight chief among them. Unfortunately, there are a number of other elements that prevent it from being considered among Wilson's finer works.

If you've read or seen some of Wilson's other plays, you'll be familiar with the basic premise of King Hedley II. As for the specifics, it's set in the Hill district in Pittsburgh in 1985, where Hedley (Brian Stokes Mitchell, giving an authoritative performance), wants to overcome the hardship and oppression he's been exposed to and make a better life for himself, his mother (Leslie Uggams), and his wife Tonya (Viola Davis). His immediate goal is to save up the $10,000 he needs to make a down payment on a video store he wants to rent with money from selling stolen refrigerators with his friend Mister (Monte Russell).

Wilson does manage to infuse his script with some genuine laughs and drama. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to elevate the show, which suffers from a severe lack of focus. In a sharp, tightly-constructed play, the hours can fly by, but King Hedley II, which runs three hours, makes you aware of every minute. It's as if the story's exact form pacing were never fully fleshed out, and what remains are a lot of interesting pieces without the connections that would make them a complete play. It seems Wilson wanted to get everything in that he had to say, regardless of the effect on the play's dramatic impact.

Take, for example, one of Hedley's earliest confrontations with Tonya. She arrives onstage noticeably upset, and proceeds to give, with little prompting, a lengthy speech about the dangers of raising a child in the modern world. Though essential to both her character and the play as a whole, the speech feels more like exposition and than the tormented ramblings of an expectant mother. Likewise, Hedley spends a fair amount of time during the play attempting to grow a flower garden in something that a number of people do not consider "good dirt." The garden (planted firmly stage center) acts a marvelous obstacle and tension point for most of the play, but its importance seems to vanish as the evening reaches its all too predictable conclusion.

Marion McClinton's direction makes a significant attempt to diminish some of the problems in the script. Though it never completely succeeds, it never adds to the show's difficulties. Even more impressive is David Gallo's set, complete with run-down brick buildings and the stage literally covered over with dirt. Donald Holder's lighting design makes perfect use of the scenic elements, creating some particularly beautiful early morning and evening scenes.

The actors all do their fair share to help keep the show afloat. Mitchell's vocal and physical presence make Hedley a towering, powerful figure. He seems to understand Hedley's emotions fully, and presents a more rounded, complete character than the script often does. Leslie Uggams, as Hedley's mother, Ruby, is somewhat less successful, though her laid-back take on the character does provide some of the show's only warmth, and you even get to hear her sing.

Russell is hilarious as Mister, and brightens up the stage whenever he appears. Stephen McKinley Henderson has a few humorous moments as Stool Pigeon, the next door neighbor, but his novelty wears off quickly. Charles Brown as Elmore and especially Viola Davis give valiant performances, though each of their roles feels more like a plot device than a human being.

Like the garden Hedley attempts to grow throughout most of the show, King Hedley II feels like a work with the best of intentions that keeps getting trod on at the wrong time. Though fans of Wilson's other work will doubtlessly be enthralled, something in this production just didn't take root.

King Hedley II by August Wilson. Directed by Marion McClinton. Set design by David Gallo. Costume design by Toni-Leslie James. Lighting design by Donald Holder. Sound design by Rob Milburn. Waltz choreography by Dianne McIntyre. Fight direction by David S. Leong. Starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Leslie Uggams, Charles Brown, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Monte Russell.

King Hedley II

The "Hedley" of August Wilson's play is not royalty -- he's a common man living in Pittsburgh -- but the title puts us in mind of Shakespeare. And indeed, one of the many wondrous things about King Hedley II is the sense of epic scale. Clocking in at nearly three hours, it's filled with extended monologues, historical revelations and magical imagery. There's even a kind of Shakespearean tragic clown figure in Stool Pigeon, Hedley's neighbor, a collector of newspapers and odd facts, a man at once backward and wise.

That Wilson can harness such grandeur to a story all too common in modern America is even more remarkable.

King Hedley II continues Wilson's cycle of plays that chronicle the lives of African-American families living in Pittsburgh's Hill district. King Hedley (that's his name -- it was his father's, too) is a still-young man who has already seen more than his share of trouble. His beloved girlfriend, Neesi, died not long ago, and his current relationship with wife Tonya seems an imperfect substitute. He also spent seven years in prison for killing a man who cut his face with a knife. Hedley bears the permanent physical scar. Yet he still dreams, and recently he's had a vision in which he wears a halo. (In the world of Hedley, ghosts seem almost more corporeal than the living.)

Of course, he's both. Hedley is one of Wilson's great creations, a man of infinite complexity. He's capable of gentleness and towering rages. You might see him as a modern Othello (Shakespeare again). And like Othello, Hedley is immersed in a world where tragedy is the inevitable conclusion of a cycle that is at once within his control and beyond it.

Wilson's play indicts nothing less than our collective history for the plight that has befallen his people: Though living in the modern world (King Hedley II takes place in 1985), Hedley and his friends and family are only the latest victims of a two-century cycle of racism and hatred. Yet Wilson is insightful enough to see that his characters themselves perpetuate that cycle.

So Tonya plans to have an abortion and her rationale is both self-sacrificing and selfish: She can't imagine bringing a(nother) child into this world, but personally she also doesn't want the burden. Ruby, Hedley's mother, hides an explosive secret: She justifies her reasons, saying it would only hurt Hedley, but she's also personally unwilling to revisit the painful past. And Hedley himself, knowing the consequences firsthand, goes back into a life of crime and violence.

The general critical consensus has been that Hedley is one of Wilson's weaker works. It's true that some of the earlier plays -- notably Fences and Joe Turner's Come and Gone are tauter and more plot-driven. But there's great maturity in the writing. I'm reminded not only of Shakespeare, but of another great writer closer to home: Eugene O'Neill. As in Long Day's Journey Into Night, it's not so much the story, but the eloquent character writing, that makes its point.

Consider the monologue of Elmore, one of Hedley's friends, who spins a magic tale of how, with nothing but $1.67 in his pocket and a $100 hat on his head, he won the heart of a woman. It's a charming story, but buried deep in it is the chilling image of a razor. Love and violence, that inseparable pair.

At PTC, Hedley is receiving a splendid production, directed with unerring sensitivity by Seret Scott. Brian Anthony Wilson is a riveting Hedley, and the rest of the ensemble is pitch-perfect. Among so many good actors, I'll single out Johnnie Hobbs Jr.'s heartbreaking, funny Stool Pigeon. Praise too for the scenery (by Yael Pardess) and lighting (by Michael Gilliam). Together, they create an Edward Hopper-ish vision of America that, like the play itself, is both historical and contemporary.

Through Feb. 23, Philadelphia Theatre Company at Plays & Players Theater, 1714 Delancey St., 215-569-9700

http://citypaper.net/articles/2003-02-06/theater3.shtml

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