PicksInSix Review: The Royale - Writers Theatre
Writers Hits ‘Royale’ On The Button!
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton
The great pioneer boxer Jack Johnson, whose early life is the model for the exhilarating production of the Marco Ramirez play “The Royale” now playing at Writers Theatre in Glencoe through the Thanksgiving weekend, once said: "If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage." This could have been posted all over the theatre as a guide for anyone who needed inspiration to battle past their challenges. It is rare that one can see a play or a film and not point out—if only to themselves—a flaw in its presentation, something that could be criticized for its failing.
Not here. Not anywhere on this stage.
The story is about Black champion boxer Jay "The Sport" Jackson (La'Tevin Alexander, dominating and stupendous in a star-making creation), a veteran boxer of seventy-six fights, who is seeking an authentic title bout with a retired champion who agrees to come back one more time.
The top of the story sees Jay and Fish (played with childlike enthusiasm and absolute wonder by Ajax Dontavius), a young boxer in his first professional exchange in the ring. And he's fighting for his life, too, even as he gets a few impressive punches in. In their seventh round, Jackson teaches the young man a real lesson in the ring, as well as one outside it. He asks young Fish to be a sparring partner and a partnership is born.
Jackson's mentor is Wynton (the great James Vincent Meredith, absolutely unrecognizable and spellbinding as Jay's voice of experience and reason), a veteran trainer who had become one after his own boxing career. Wynton constantly tugs on Jay's coat, urging caution and calm, especially in the face of press interviews, which consistently and without any shame focus on Jay's color, asking questions that were common for the day—it's 1905, and early 20th century Jim Crow attitudes are dominant—and helping to keep Jay on a straighter road. Everyone understands the importance of this fight, because it wasn't just for a heavyweight title. It also was a watershed moment in the progress of civil rights. Hence, the courage to step up, to make a stand arrives more and more in Jay's preparations for the fight.
A fly in the ointment occurs at that news conference. The fight promoter Max (Scott Aiello is flawless in his expert walk of the delicate line between good guy/bad guy) allows one question too many, and it's one of security and safety. Police stopped four men with guns from entering the arena, and the reality of the fight's weight and measure drastically changes focus. An argument ensues between Jay and Max about whose side that Max is on. Ultimately it places real doubt in Jay's mind about the wisdom of the fight, the reasons for being there, and the safety of so many people.
Enter Nina, Jay's sister (such a brilliant cautionary attitude offered in elegant droves by AnJi White). She's taken the train to talk with Jay right before the fight itself, sharing the pride of all the friends and family back home—and begging him not to fight at all. Nina's worry is that Jay has been in his own kind of bubble for so long that he doesn't see the societal ramifications of what might happen, should he actually win.
In a scene worthy of any August Wilson story during that period, the playwright Mr. Ramirez creates a fascinating debate between what a man has worked all his life to accomplish and what might actually be the right thing to do once he arrives at the pinnacle of his career.
It's a condensed give-and-take on two different looks at the same human quality—courage. In this case, we see both sides. One is the courage to follow through on one's dreams, once the choice is made to actually pursue them. The other is the courage to make a kind of sacrifice in those dreams to help the greater good to keep moving forward.
The fight itself is a clinic in both preeminent authorship and professional directorial craft of the highest order. Mr. Ramirez has placed Nina in the spot of the white boxer as the foil, the opponent to Jay's reach to the top. It's not just absorbing theatrical foundation. It's a hugely poetic invention to share one of ambition's real dichotomies—how to achieve your goals without stepping on others.
Director Tyrone Phillips has bracketed his entire concept of the play on musically rhythmic tempos, where the boxers actually offer a kind of underscore with the sound of their feet. The sparse set design by Lauren M. Nichols of what suggests is a gym with one lonely punching bag is a superb one. Movement director Rasell Holt has richly choreographed boxing patterns that highly compliment, rather than distract from, the story being told.
“The Royale” is a splendid tale with exceptional professionals at the top of their game. One of the best productions this writer has seen in a season full of Chicago excellence.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. Coming soon, his new solo play about Ben Franklin, THE FIRST EMBASSY. www.solochicagotheatre.com.
PHOTO|Hugo Hentoff
For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago
PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC