Arden Theatre Company presents August Wilson’s King Hedley II

August Wilson’s King Hedley II, onstage at the Arden through March 30, 2025, follows a troubled protagonist attempting to put his life back together after a stint in prison for killing a man. Although he has served his time, his record gives King little recourse for controlling his own life besides working a low-paying job and plotting jewelry store robberies. He and his friend Mister are saving money to open a video store, but the pressures of poverty are closing in on them both, making King’s dream of comfort and autonomy feel further from reality by the minute.

Theatricality and reality

In a nuanced performance, Akeem Davis brings every ounce of King’s rage and dissatisfaction to the stage. His arc begins with a subdued, almost filmic naturalism before the plot’s tension builds to an explosive finale under director James Ijames.

Meanwhile, Monroe Barrick captures the supernatural in his portrayal of Stool Pigeon, a spiritually awoken older man and King’s next-door neighbor, who cares for neighborhood stray cats. Taysha Marie Canales plays Tonya, King’s wife, a woman grappling with fears of losing herself and her body to an unexpected pregnancy in her mid-30s. Both actors accentuate King’s arc, with Barrick representing the higher theatricality toward which King’s desperation grows, and Canales remaining an anchor in cold reality.

In a vacant lot

The drama unfolds mostly on the vacant lot between houses. Set designer Thom Weaver takes a great deal of care with fine visual details, like the dull grayish brown of the dirt contrasting with the dark green ivy climbing up the brick exterior of King’s house. But the music that transitions us from scene to scene (sound design by Daniel J. Ison) clashes with the other elements: the sparse hip-hop rhythms have a more modern quality while the rest of the production sticks to the older time period—an anachronism that doesn’t seem to serve the story.

A highlight of the cycle

King Hedley II is the penultimate script in August Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle (also known as the Pittsburgh Cycle, as nine of the 10 plays take place in the Hill District of Pittsburgh). The script contains many of Wilson’s most brutal storytelling trademarks—a desperate, angry protagonist; guns and petty crime; characters with lingering, unspoken resentments toward one another—culminating in a stark depiction of systemic racism, the poverty it breeds, and the violence that people ensnared in such systems sometimes enact, willfully or not.

This is the Arden’s sixth Century Cycle production in its commitment to produce all 10 plays. The endeavor began in 2008 with Fences, Wilson’s best-known play, and most recently included last season’s “prophetic” Radio Golf. This production of King Hedley II should be regarded as one of the highlights of the Arden’s ongoing commemoration of Wilson’s work.