The internal battle: Nicholas Pinnock (Jay Jackson). Photo credit: Helen Murray
Play: The Royale
Theatre: Bush Theatre
Playwright: Marco Ramirez
Director: Madani Younis
Review by Joy Francis
The Royale is inspired by the controversial life of the talented African American boxer Jack Johnson who, in the early 1900s, challenged the Jim Crow laws with his flamboyant lifestyle, love of white women and defeat of the white world champion James J. Jeffries.
Like Jack, Jay ‘The Sport’ Jackson (an elegant and restrained Nicholas Pinnock) is a successful and talented boxer on the black circuit. Handsome, quick witted, over-confident and driven, he plays to the crowd and talks his opponents into submission. He is also cagey about his past.
Despite his seeming success, 12 years into his career he desperately wants to be world champ and be elevated from page five to the cover story in the white press. For that to happen the reigning world champion Bixby would have to come out retirement to fight him.
Jay badgers his white promoter Max (a convincing Ewan Stewart) to get Bixby to take up the challenge, at any cost. Bixby’s representatives believe he would disgrace his legacy by fighting a black man. Jay wants a shot at the title. Bixby finally relents, but on the most outrageous of terms: 90 percent of the total purse – win or lose.
Meanwhile Jay’s longsuffering and cynical trainer Wynton (the reliable Clint Dyer) sees star potential in Fish (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr), a young boxer who nearly beat Jackson in his maiden fight. Impressed, Wynton recruits the initially reluctant Fish to be Jay’s sparring partner in preparation for the world title.
The lead up to the fight is fraught with danger. White men coming to the fight are frisked and guns are retrieved. Rumours of race riots are brewing. This is not just a fight between two men. It’s seen as a challenge to white supremacy and the state sanctioned apartheid system in the US. Black lives are at risk.
Caught in a dilemma: Ewan Stewart (Max), Nicholas Pinnock (Jay) and Frances Ashman (Nina). Photo credit: Helen Murray
This is the fear of Jay’s strong-willed sister Nina (an impressive Frances Ashman), whose influence over her brother is immense. She mentally spars with him over his decision to fight Bixby. She claws at his motivations and points out that his “knocking out a white man” is not just about him, but the future safety of black men across the country, including his two nephews. Unlike him, “black people aren’t ready to take over the world,” she says.
Nina and Jay’s coruscating and brutal verbal battle reveals some uncomfortable truths about what they are both running from and what he is really fighting for. By the time Jay gets into the ring, he is not only fighting Bixby, but his sister, his past and himself.
The devastating outcome is one that shows the unfair and inhumane dilemma that African Americans in the 1900s were saddled with in their quest for progress and equal rights. How their success or failure risked the lives and reputation of the whole race.
Playwright Marco Ramirez’s script is lyrical, engaging and feels contemporary. The wonderfully authentic and sparse staging – a wooden boxing ring with no ropes; swirling sawdust given an almost glitter effect by atmospheric lighting – puts the pressure on the actors to bring the story to life.
Director Madani Younis draws out Jay’s inner turmoil through imaginative and intimate choreographed fight scenes. Instead of bone crushing bouts, the sounds effects and fight commentary come from the actors, while the battles are presented as a brutish yet elegant dance, showing how much boxing is a battle with the self.
As for the performances, they are a knockout. Nicholas Pinnock’s Jay is all charm, contained pain and anger. Clint Dyer as Wynton is a solid presence and reflects a world-weariness based on frequent disappointments. TV stalwart Ewan Stewart gives us an insight into the white world’s view of black folk as Max with great style and frustration, while Gershwyn Eustache Jnr’s Fish is all youthful bravado, charm and vulnerability.
But the standout performance is Frances Ashman’s fierce and passionate Nina. She is the person to be feared, as she prowls around the set like she owns it. She takes on the audience, and Jay, with daring, conviction and emotional authenticity.
If you are expecting the archetypal blood, sweat and tears, then think again. The Royale is more about the personal cost of racism and the psychology of a black boxer of his time, which adds some meaning to what the real Jack Johnson said of his childhood lesson: “No one ever taught me that white men were superior to me.”
The Royale is worth placing a solid bet on.
The Royale is at the Bush Theatre until 18 April 2015.