John Kani’s Kunene and the King, a US premiere, brings us two great actors in a great play that explores the complex relationship between two South African men.
Written by South African actor, activist and playwright John Kani, this refreshingly funny and vital new play had its US premiere in 2025 at Shakespeare Theatre Company.
South Africa, 2019. Twenty-five years since the first post-apartheid democratic elections, two men from contrasting walks of life are thrust together to reflect on a quarter century of change. Jack Morris (Edward Gero) is a celebrated classical actor who’s just been given both a career-defining role and a life-changing diagnosis. Besides his age, Jack has seemingly little in common with his at-home nurse Lunga Kunene, (John Kani) but the two men soon discover their shared passion for Shakespeare, which ignites this ‘rich, raw and shattering head-to-head’ (The Times).
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Edward Gero, an American actor, most noted for his stage work, is a four-time Helen Hayes Award recipient and sixteen-time Helen Hayes Nominee. He created the role of Justice Antonin Scalia in The Originalist by John Strand, premiering at Arena Stage in 2015 touring the country before completing its run Off-Broadway in 2018. He was the first American to play Mark Rothko in "RED" at Goodman Theater in Chicago and Arena Stage. He was Gloucester in "King Lear" with Stacy Keach at Goodman and the Shakespeare Theatre, both directed by Robert Falls. Other regional credits include Nixon in "Nixon's Nixon," Salieri in "Amadeus" at Roundhouse Theater, Sweeney in "Sweeney Todd" at Signature Theatre, Donny in "American Buffalo" at Studio Theatre, and for the last six years, Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" at Washington's historic Ford's Theatre. In 31 seasons In Washington, he has played 75 Shakespearean roles at STC including Hotspur in "Henry IV" (Helen Hayes Award), Bolingbroke in "Richard II" (Helen Hayes Award) and Macduff in "Macbeth"(Helen Hayes Award). Film and television credits include House of Cards, Turn: Washington's Spies, Die Hard II, Striking Distance, and narrations for The Discovery Channel and PBS. He is an Associate Professor of Theater and Head of the Performance Area for the School of Theater at George Mason University, and instructor for the Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University Mr. Gero was featured on the cover of The Washington Post Magazine and profiled in American Theater Magazine. He was named a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow at Ten Chimneys in 2015.
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Edward Gero 