I admit that when the Guthrie announced their 2026-2027 season, I didn't know what
Kunene and the King was, and I didn't know who John Kani was. I do now. John Kani is a legendary Tony-winning South African playwright, actor, and activist with a career that spans more than half a century, who wrote and stars in this play. He's traveled with it from London, to South Africa, to Washington, DC, and now, fortunately for us - Minneapolis. A two-hander about a White South African actor with terminal cancer and the Black South African nurse who cares for him in his final days, the play beautifully and brutally encapsulates the history of apartheid through the relationship between two humans, who use Shakespeare to connect. The Guthrie doesn't often host touring productions, but I'm so grateful that they brought this play here (a production by
Octopus Theatricals). It's beautifully written, directed, acted, and designed, and does that thing that theater does best - bring you into a world that is different from your own, and create empathy and understanding.
See Kunene and the King in the Guthrie's proscenium theater through November 8.
The play is structured as three long scenes that play out over 100 or so intermissionless minutes. The first two scenes take place in the actor Jack's apartment in a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg. He's just been diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer, and left the hospital early with the promise that he would have a caregiver in the home. Expecting a young white woman, he's surprised when an older Black man called Sister Kunene arrives (the caregivers are always called Sister regardless of gender). The two reluctantly form a relationship, and in particular bond over their love of Shakespeare. Jack is preparing to play the title role in King Lear (although both men know he won't live that long), and Kunene recalls studying Julius Ceasar in school, translated into his native language (which is based on John's experience, per an article in the program). But the two also disagree and argue, in particular about apartheid and the current government. The final scene takes place in Kunene's home in the township of Soweto, when Jack shows up high on some new drugs that the doctor gave him. They still argue, but the two men are finally able to truly see each other.
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John Kani and Edward Gero in the 2025 Shakespeare Theatre
Company production (Teresa Castracane Photography) |
Broadway director Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the play and it feels so natural and real and funny, but also profound and devastating at times. Two-handers are my favorite kind of play, and these two actors are simply divine. I'm not sure it gets much better than an actor/playwright saying the words that they wrote, and John Kani just
is Kunene, kind and funny, and also righteously angry (he's a very spry 80+ year-old!). He's paired well with Edward Gero (who appeared on the Guthrie's thrust stage in
The Lehman Trilogy), so gruff and obnoxious as Jack, but somehow also sympathetic and almost loveable. It's a joy to watch these two create these characters and this relationship. And while the scenes are two-handers, there is a third performer on stage, the wonderful South African singer and dancer Ntebo. She opens the show with a traditional performance, and also performs during scene transitions, wearing stunningly gorgeous traditional costumes. The play would be great and complete without these interstitials, but they add a richness and depth to the story that's being told.
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John Kani and Edward Gero in the 2025 Shakespeare Theatre
Company production (Teresa Castracane Photography) |
This play includes one of the more exciting set transitions I've seen at the Guthrie lately. In the first two scenes, we're in Jack's posh, if slightly messy, apartment. On one side a living room with bookshelves full of books and theater mementos, a comfy couch with pillows, and hidden bottles of booze (Jack's an alcoholic who promises to stop drinking, but doesn't), on the other a kitchen behind a counter with bar stools. After the end of the second scene, the lights dim and we watch as the apartment splits in two and flies off into the wings, with another set moving forward to take its place. Now we're in Kunene's neat but modest home, just as detailed and revealing of its inhabitant as Jack's place. No imagination required, it really feels like we're in these real and lived in homes. (Scenic design by Lawrence E. Moten III, costume design by Karen Perry, lighting design by Rui Rita, sound design by DJ Potts.)
Kunene and the King tells a story specific to South Africa, but it's also about two people seemingly on different sides of a great divide, who find common ground and humanity between them. If they can do it, maybe there's hope for the rest of us too.
