King Hedley II

Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle consists of 10 plays, each set during one decade of the 20th century. All but one of the plays are set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. The Hill District, a group of historically Black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, plays a significant role within the plays. Wilson’s setting in some way shaped all of his various characters, and his representations of people and places are inextricably linked. He also intended, through the Pittsburgh Cycle, to create an in-depth, dynamic portrait of a neighborhood in flux: The area underwent many changes between the early 1900s, when Gem of the Ocean is set, and the 1990s, when Radio Golf is set. In writing the plays, Wilson borrowed from his own family’s history, included bits and pieces of local lore, and showcased the particular experiences of his community throughout time.

Wilson also wanted the Pittsburgh Cycle to speak to the 20th-century Black American experience writ large. Thus, the Great Migration emerges as an important thematic focal point in multiple installments. Many of the plays set during the early decades of the 20th century also share an interest in the way that formerly enslaved individuals and their children came to terms with their shared history of trauma, formed and maintained supportive Black families and communities, and attempted to better themselves economically. All of his works in some way address both person-to-person prejudice and systemic racism. In King Hedley II, systemic racism takes the form of mass incarceration and economic disenfranchisement. King struggles to find legitimate work upon leaving prison, and his difficulties are all too common in the neighborhood. Mister, too, sees the illicit economy as his only viable means of making a living. All of the Black men depicted in the play also encounter person-to-person prejudice, and the scene in which they discuss the discrimination they faced, even as young boys in school, powerfully anticipates and engages with public discourse surrounding the unequal enforcement of school rules and policies that would come to be known as the schools-to-prisons pipeline. King Hedley II also engages with the changing face of Black masculinity, another key theme that runs through much of Wilson’s work. King Hedley II shares an interest in the complexities of Black family life with Wilson’s two most famous plays, Fences and The Piano Lesson, and also showcases gender through its interest in the difficulties motherhood and marriage.

Although Fences and The Piano Lesson, both Pulitzer Prize winners, are the most famous and most frequently performed of the cycle, each of the plays is an important work in its own right. Gem of the Ocean, the first play in the cycle, examines the early years of the 20th century, and shares the character of Aunt Ester with King Hedley II. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, set during the 1910s, examines the lives of formerly enslaved people and depicts the mass movement of Black Americans from the rural South to the urban North that would come to be known as the Great Migration. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, set during the 1920s, chronicles the history of jazz in America. The Piano Lesson, set during the 1930s, shares with King Hedley II and many of the other plays in the cycle an interest in the legacy of enslavement. Seven Guitars, set during the 1940s, and Fences, set during the 1950s, share an interest in Black masculinity with King Hedley II. Additionally, Seven Guitars introduces many of the characters depicted or spoken about in King Hedley II. Two Trains Running depicts the social upheaval of the 1960s, and Jitney and Radio Golf, the plays depicting the 1970s and 1990s, respectively, share with King Hedley II an interest in the continued legacy of racism, gentrification, and shifting identity patterns in Black communities in the final decades of the 20th century.