Can a three-hour drama with no story be successful? Unfortunately not, not even if the playwright is August Wilson, a master of the black vernacular. King Hedley II abounds in inspired speeches (some of which will be used by actors in monologue auditions for decades to come) and bursts of pungent, heady dialogue, but they don't add up to anything like a narrative which will keep you at the edge of your seat, breathless to know what happens next. Watching Hedley is akin to driving through the midwest in summer and seeing flashes of lightning everywhere, but never experiencing an actual storm.
Set in Pittsburgh's Hill District in 1985, the play deals with six embattled inhabitants of the black ghetto: Stool Pigeon (Lou Myers), a crazy, bible-spouting old coot who rails against a profligate world and threatens it with God's vengeance; King Hedley (Harry Lennix, alt. with Jerome Butler), a scarred, angry ex-con; Ruby (Juanita Jennings), his blues-singing mama; Mister (Monte Russell), Hedley's main man and partner-in-crime; Tonya (Mone Walton), Hedley's young, pregnant wife; and Elmore (Charles Brown), a gambler and hustler with personality to spare. Will Hedley and Mister be able to pull off a jewelry store robbery meant to finance a retail operation of their own? Will Ruby accept Elmore's offer of marriage? Will Tonya have her baby or undergo an abortion, as Hedley wants her to?
Those are the meager plot points in the play, which is otherwise composed of the characters sounding off about honor, blood, hope, racism and justice. Many of these verbal riffs are brilliant -- the first time around, less interesting and even tedious when repeated afterwards. An even more serious flaw is the way Wilson has conceived his characters; they are so locked into themselves, such prisoners of a personal code of behavior, that you know they will never be able to surmount their flaws. Also, their love of guns and knives is so over-riding that, had Wilson been white, he would be accused of caricaturing these slum-dwellers.
On the plus side, though, is the stellar acting of the ensemble cast, McClinton's smooth, seamless direction and the show's superb production values, notably David Gallo's bleakly atmospheric backyard set.
