Sometimes, when you go to see a play, you wonder why you spent both the time and the money. Sometimes, you come out of a theater pleased, having seen a good show. Rarely, you come out of a theater and say: “Wow. This is what theater is all about.” Today was one of those days.

We have a subscription to Washington’s Shakespeare Theater, one of the city’s preeminent theaters. This afternoon, we saw Kunene and the King, written by John Kani and starring John Kani and Ed Gero. If you live in Washington and tend to go to Shakespeare or other top DC theaters, you probably know Ed Gero, who has been performing her for about the last 40 years. But do you know John Kani? I must admit I didn’t. Or at least I should say that his name didn’t trigger any response.

John Kani is three months older than I am, and looks like he is 65. He is a South African native Xhosa speaker, who became an anti-apartheid activist, was beaten up when he was in his 20s and left for dead in Johannesburg, saved by a White doctor whom he has never been able to identify. He had been stabbed eleven times and lost his left eye in the process.

At a young age, Kani worked with white South African playwright Athol Fugard (who died just a little over a week ago at 92) to write Sizwe Banzi is Dead, which he also starred in. He has been a champion of South African theater, a Shakespearean actor, a Black South African cultural leader and much more. Googling him will tell you a lot.

But back to the play. “Kunene” is the Xhosa word for “truth” and “King” is “King Lear”. In other words, the play is about facing the truth and embracing culture (both English and South African).

There are two main roles. Jack is an aging, white South African Shakespearean actor, just diagnosed with terminal Stage 4 liver cancer. Lungo is a Black, male nurse who has been engaged to care for, and live with, Jack until he “gets better”. They have both spent their entire life in South Africa, but they have never lived in the same country, and their relationship is a challenge.

But they do have something in common– Shakespeare. Jack pretends he will be able to fulfill his obligation to play Lear in Capetown in several months. Lungo helps him prepare, tells him that he once performed in Julius Caesar, but in Xhosa.

Their relationship goes back and forth, depending on whether, at a given time, they see each other as two human beings or as a representative of White or Black South Africans. The play is funny and sad and deep, and beautifully written.

As far as I know, wherever this play has been performed, including in South Africa and New York, Kani has played the role of Lungo. But there have been several Jacks and several directors.  So, each time, even though the playwright has not only been present and played a lead role, the performance has been different.

But I can not imagine it better than this. No one could be a better Jack than Gero. Playing a sick man is difficult, and Gero can actually make himself look sick and then immediately take on a healthier appearance. He can writhe in pain and then start to dance. His soft, calm voice can scream and become highly agitated and in a second turn soft again. Both roles have a high degree of physicality. A lot for actors who are far from being spring chickens.

The show closes one week from today. See it if you can.

Changing subjects, yesterday I mentioned three podcasts that I recommended. One on Ezra Klein’s YouTube channel, one from Politics and Prose, and one with Andrew Weissman and Joyce Vance. I still recommend all three.

And now I add a fourth. A post from two days ago on the Foreign Affairs channel festuring Fiona Hill. She gives an overlay of the state of the world, and it’s a bravura performance. The US, Canada, Greenland,  Panama, Europe, Russia, china, Taiwan…..they are all included. What you see is how interconnected everything is, and how much can go wrong through misunderstandings or miscalculations or just plain mischief. In the course of an hour, you will see today’s world from a global perspective, and you will learn much. And you probably won’t be able to sleep for a week.