Cast Set for KUNENE AND THE KING at Guthrie Theater

The Guthrie Theater has revealed the cast and creative team for the presentation of Octopus Theatricals' Kunene and the King by John Kani, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Kunene and the King begins previews on Saturday, October 10, opens on Thursday, October 15 and will play through Sunday, November 8 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. 

John Kani's Kunene and the King premiered at Royal Shakespeare Company in London in April 2019, in association with the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town, starring Kani as Lunga Kunene and Anthony Sher as Jack Morris. The show later had its U.S. premiere in early 2025 at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., with Edward Gero in the role of Jack Morris. Both Kani and Gero will reprise their roles at the Guthrie. Kunene and the King is an Octopus Theatricals production (All the Devils Are Here, On Beckett) and marks the first play by John Kani presented at the Guthrie.

Set in post-apartheid South Africa in 2019, Kunene and the King begins when Lunga Kunene, a no-nonsense Black caregiver with little patience for privilege or hubris, finds himself providing in-home care for Jack Morris, a celebrated (and stubborn) white actor facing a life-changing diagnosis as he rehearses for the title role in King Lear. The two men are different in every way — race, class and politics, to start — yet they find unexpected common ground in the words of Shakespeare. This refreshingly funny and vital new play by Tony winner John Kani, who also plays Kunene, traces the fragile work of truth-telling in a nation still shaped by its history and reveals how transcending the past may allow us to truly see one another.

The cast of Kunene and the King includes Edward Gero (Guthrie: The Lehman Trilogy) as Jack Morris, John Kani (Guthrie: debut) as Lunga Kunene and Ntebo (Guthrie: debut) as Isithunywa.

The creative team includes John Kani (Playwright), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Director), Lawrence E. Moten III (Scenic Designer), Karen Perry (Costume Designer), Rui Rita (Lighting Designer), DJ Potts (Sound Designer), Stewert Productions/Bethany Weinstein Stewert (Tour Production Manager), Alyssa K. Howard (Production Stage Manager), Kathryn Sam Houkom (Assistant Stage Manager), Gabby S. Trice (Associate Scenic Designer), Jon Ontiveros (Associate Lighting Designer), Kaileykielle Hoga (Associate Sound Designer), Timothy Johnson (Associate Director), Robert Mahon (Tour Technical Director), Mara Isaacs (Executive Producer) and Bryan Hunt (Tour Producer).