Set in 1985 in two tenement backyards in Pittsburgh ’s Hill District, King Hedley II is an epic tragedy of the common man and the crushing weight of everyday life and our ultimate struggle to regain our sense of community and culture in a crumbling urban society.

King Hedley II takes place during a time of drive-by shootings and Reaganomics that don't trickle down as far as the Hill District. King Hedley II (Gainey) and his friend, Mister ( Taylor), make ends meet by fencing "hot" refrigerators until they can get the money together to start a video store. King's wife, Tonya ( Dawson ) is pregnant but, already a grandmother at 35, she does not want to have the baby. King is insistent. The arrival in town of his mother Ruby's (Johnson) ex-lover Elmore (Barnes) triggers a series of events that cause King to question his manhood and his identity.

King Hedley II continued playwright August Wilson's monumental cycle of plays chronicling African-American life in twentieth century America . King Hedley II is a still-young man who has already seen more than his share of trouble. His beloved girlfriend, Neesi , died not long ago, and his current relationship with wife Tonya seems an imperfect substitute. He also spent seven years in prison for killing a man who cut his face with a knife. Hedley bears the permanent physical scar. 

The audience will feel the characters frustration, anger, and pain as Hedley , one of Wilson 's great creations, a man of infinite complexity displays he is capable of gentleness and towering rages. He may very well be seen as a modern Shakespeare ‘s Othello. And like Othello, Hedley is immersed in a world where tragedy is the inevitable conclusion of a cycle that is at once within his control and beyond it. 

Bullins, who taught at Northeastern University since 1995 and currently holds the title Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, has written more than a hundred plays. Having a healthy measure of accolades already come to him, this former Black Panther has produced many works including a trilogy of plays—A Son, Come Home, The Electronic Nigger, and Clara’s Ole Man which earned him the 1968 Vernon Rice Drama Desk Award. In 1971, he earned an Obie Award and the Black Arts Alliance Award for both The Fabulous Miss Marie and In New England Winter. The Taking of Miss Janie garnered him a Obie Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1975.