Roger Guenveur Smith paints an achingly beautiful portrait of a man and the moment that set a city afire. This powerful one-man show goes behind the brutalized face plastered on newspapers and the video footage of a savage beating for which no one was held accountable. Through rich poetry and compelling research, Rodney King emerges as an unlikely but unforgettable celebrity. Twenty years later, his gentle plea for peace echoes
beyond his lonely death. In the wake of recent violence, this gripping story spotlights unchecked police brutality, offering empathy and clarity as the press moves further from objectivity toward entertainment.
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Rodney King Reviews
Twin Cities Pioneer Press - Recommended
"...It will come as a surprise to no one that Smith ends with King's, "Can we all get along?" But, on the way there, Smith challenges Penumbra audiences to ask themselves whether they heard what King was saying. "They're laughing at you in St. Paul," Smith says at one point, simultaneously addressing the ghost of the show's subject and the world that still needs King's simple eloquence."
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