August Wilson’s King Hedley II

Nearly forty years after the blues of Seven Guitars,
the American Shakespeare takes on the Reagan Era.

By August Wilson
Directed by Summer L Williams
In Partnership with Hibernian Hall

EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND: NOW – APR 7
Hibernian Hall, Roxbury

This production has been awarded a “Critics’ Pick” medallion, by the Boston Theater Critics Association, the third production in ASP’s history to have received such an honor.

Thank you to the BTCA for these laurels. Learn more about their work at ElliotNortonAwards.com.

Following one of ASP’s most acclaimed and successful productions of all-time, Seven Guitars, Actors’ Shakespeare Project returns to Hibernian Hall in 2024 for another installment in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle: King Hedley II.

Fresh off of a seven-year stint in prison, King Hedley II (named after his father, who was played by Johnnie Mack in ASP’s Seven Guitars) dreams of going straight. He’s going to open his own video store — even if he has to steal every refrigerator in Pittsburgh to make it happen. Returning home to the Hill District in 1985, King finds that his community is beset by violence, con men, and redlining. As King fights to keep his family afloat, the harsh realities of Reagan’s America threaten to drag him under. 

Hailed by Variety in 1999 as “maybe the most passionate work that August Wilson has penned to date,” King Hedley II dives into family tensions and the Black experience in America with Wilson’s signature poeticism and power.

RUN-TIME: This production runs three hours, including one ten-minute intermission.

CAST