Remembering Rodney King through theater

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When people remember Rodney King, they often remember two things.

They remember the 1991 violent video footage of King being beaten by four Los Angeles police officers, and they remember the line from the speech King made after those officers were acquitted.

On the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, while riots raged through the city, King asked, "Can we all get along? Can we get along?"

But that's only one line from his speech. Playwright and performer Roger Guenveur Smith wanted people to hear the whole thing.

"There's so much more to the speech and so much more to the man," Smith said. "I thought it would be respectful of him to hear that speech in its entirety."

After King died three years ago, Smith created a one-man show, "Rodney King," which has toured the country to great acclaim. It will open at the Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul Thursday night.

With recent cases of police brutality and officer-involved shootings making headlines, the play has resonated deeply with audiences. The first evening the show opened in Brooklyn was the day that a grand jury chose not to indict an officer in the death of Eric Garner.

"That particular run was tremendous, not simply because of what happened in the theater," Smith said. "But because of what happened in the theater in conjunction with what happened in the streets."