Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...In Chicago, theatergoers most often see Wilson's plays on larger stages like the Goodman, where "King Hedley II" opened the newly completed Albert Theatre in 2001. At City Lit, you can sit just feet away from the actors and feel the figurative heat of the characters' anger and despair. While the performances sometimes overpower the space, it's nevertheless an absorbing way to take in the words of this giant of the American theater."
Chicago Reader
- Recommended
"...Chicago has long had a rich connection to the late August Wilson. Goodman Theatre, the first in the nation to present all ten plays in Wilson's "Century Cycle," loved the playwright (who died in 2005) so much that they chose his 1999 play, King Hedley II, as the inaugural show in 2001 at their then new venue on Dearborn. Wilson's work has also been a regular feature at Court Theatre, where resident artist Ron OJ Parson will become one of a handful of directors in the U.S. to complete the entire cycle when Joe Turner's Come and Gone opens in January. Congo Square Theatre Company was championed by Wilson and produced several of his plays before closing after a dispute between the artistic ensemble and the board."
WBEZ
- Highly Recommended
"...Seeing an August Wilson play on a small stage is always a unique experience. But the intimacy of City Lit Theatre, located on the second floor of an Edgewater church, makes the intensity of gritty drama “King Hedley II” feel especially immersive."
Stage and Cinema
- Recommended
"...August Wilson’s King Hedley II, the ninth play in his Pittsburgh Cycle, is the second offering from City Lit in its 46th season. Jeremiah Barr’s charming set features the back porches of two houses, one occupied by the Hedley family and the other by an older gentleman called Stool Pigeon (Brandon Boler), who fancies himself a prophet. A raised plant bed completes the yard. It is currently bare, but King is determined to grow flowers in it despite the misgivings of his birth mother Ruby (Andrea Conway-Diaz), who insists that the dirt isn’t good enough: “You need good dirt to make things grow.” King fires back in resentment, “This is the only dirt I got.”"
Third Coast Review
- Recommended
"...August Wilson, one of our greatest American playwrights, among other accomplishments, left us ten plays in his "Pittsburgh Cycle." Each one explores the African American experience in a different 20th century decade. City Lit Theater Company, whose 2024 production of the cycle's 1940s entry Seven Guitars won the Jeff Award for Best Production of a Play, returns with 1980s entry King Hedley II, directed by Manny Buckley."
Entertaining Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...A gripping portrait of a man caught between the life he wants and the past he can't escape, City Lit Theatre's production of King Hedley II pairs an intensely unpredictable central performance with a charismatic ensemble to bring August Wilson's exploration of family, trauma, and personal responsibility to life."
Chicago Theater and Arts
- Highly Recommended
"...City Lit Theater Company is offering a most powerful presentation of King Hedley II directed by Manny Buckley. The play represents the 1980s chapter of August Wilson's Century Cycle of works aimed at providing a portrait of African American life across the 20th Century."
Splash Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...The sheer robust excellence of the cast- the lucidity of the direction and the playacting- gives us a true universal drama built on narrative rather than action. Yet, the speechmaking is so robust, graced by gesture, physical humor, facial expression and perfectly set in the context of developed relationships, that the community portrayed at its heart is perfectly realized."
Allie and the After Party
- Recommended
"...Continuing events from an earlier August Wilson play, King Hedley II follows the son of one of those characters as he tries to rebuild his life after seven years in prison. It’s a character driven show where the cast feels their characters deeply, even though sometimes their overall connection with each other felt disjointed."
NewCity Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...But “King Hedley II”—now playing at City Lit in a production whose moments of high intensity are dissipated in an unfocused, over-long staging—seems out of balance. Set in 1985 in Pittsburgh’s working-class Hill District, depicted here as a post-industrial wasteland of drugs, crime, poverty and general social breakdown, “Hedley” is a dark play indeed, one that offers precious little optimism in regard to either the title protagonist or the decaying community of which he is a part."
