Edward Gero to Join John Kani in KUNENE AND THE KING at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Edward Gero has been cast to play opposite previously announced John Kani in Kunene and the King at Shakespeare Theatre Company, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. The play makes its U.S. premiere in STC’s Klein Theatre February 16 - March 16, 2025.

Kunene and the King, written by and starring South African Tony-winning actor, activist, and playwright Kani, follows the unexpected bond between a terminally ill classical Shakespearean actor Jack Morris (Gero) and his caregiver Lunga Kunene (Kani), set 25 years after the first post-apartheid democratic elections in South Africa.

"Kunene and the King takes two people from completely different worlds in post-apartheid South Africa—two different personalities, two different backgrounds, two different races—and smashes them together in a confined space. Then it makes them both figure out how to navigate that space,” says Santiago-Hudson. “It is about the pathos—the pain, the dysfunction—of these two people from completely different worlds. The common thread comes through Shakespeare. Shakespeare is the common ground both of them love and understand. By speaking some of his most powerful and poetic words, Shakespeare allows them to love and understand each other.”

John Kani makes his STC debut with Kunene and the King. A noted actor, activist actor, director, and award-winning playwright, his work has been performed internationally. His long-ranging career includes such varied credits as a 1975 Tony Award–winning performances in The Island and Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, which he co-wrote with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona, and the iconic role of and T'Chaka in Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther, as well as the voice of Rafiki in the upcoming Mufasa movie.

Edward Gero is a long-familiar face to STC audiences, having appeared in more than 80 productions in the company’s 40-year history, most recently in the 23/24 production of The Lehman Trilogy, which he revived this fall at the Guthrie Theatre. In addition, he has performed extensively throughout the Washington, D.C., region, Off-Broadway, and beyond.

Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson's many credits include Broadway productions of JITNEY!, Skelton Crew, and Lackawanna Blues—which he also wrote and starred in—as well as dozens of regional productions around the country. As an actor, he has appeared on Broadway (earning a Tony Award for his performance in Seven Guitars), Off-Broadway, and in film and TV.