King Hedley II (2007)

''Now they done had World War I and World War II. The next motherf---er that f---s with me it's gonna be World War III.'' August Wilson's men talk big, but none bigger than King (Russell Hornsby). And in the Signature Theatre's revelatory revival of King Hedley II, every word chills to the bone. The 1985-set Hedley isn't the late playwright's tidiest work — soliloquies about abortion and drive-by shootings don't quite mesh with tales of 366-year-old shaman Aunt Ester or the sexagenarian love story — but this bracing, hip-hop-infused production is the best Wilson we've seen in the past decade.

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