Centred around a great and still playing US basketball legend, it’s a two-hander drama about friendship and masculinity…
By Suman Bhuchar
THIS is a play by Rajiv Joseph (who gave us ‘Guards at the Taj’) about a baseball player LeBron James or ‘King James’ as he is nicknamed – and who is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players in history.
This story is about male friendship, micro aggressions, privilege and fandom.
Based on the unlikely premise of two men, Matt and Shawn, who are fans of Le Bron and first meet when Matt (Sam Mitchell) who is white, has to sell his season tickets for the baseball matches, as his business is failing and his parents refuse to bail him out.
Shawn who’s black (Ényì Okoronkwo) arrives at the former’s wine bar La Cave du Vin, to acquire the much prized tickets as Bron is about to make his debut with his home team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After much haggling between the two men over price and value, Shawn gets the tickets and the play continues as the two meet over years between ages of 21 to 33. Their own lives mirroring the fortunes of their favourite player in a way.
In Act 2, the set changes and the wine bar becomes Matt’s family shop Armand’s Upholstery and Used Furniture Store with Shawn is working for Matt’s mother.
Directed by Alice Hamilton, associate director of Hampstead Theatre — the play is presented like a game (in four quarters) in traverse style with the set in the middle and raked seating back on both side of Hampstead Downstairs.
It gives the flavour of being at a match and there is a lot of basketball terminolgy and you can miss some of the nuance. The lighting design by Matt Haskins and sound by Max Pappenheim contribute to enlivening the environment.
The men continue to riposte, feel cheated when Le Bron ditches his home team to move to Miami but returns back to them by the fourth quarter of the play. Matt also continues to raise a discussion about “the problem with America” and the play doesn’t analyse the external politics, so it seems like a throwaway line or more about how the microcosm of ordinary life mirrors the macrocosm. There is little about the two men’s race – or the subject in a wider context.
Mostly the play is just chat between the two men who become sort of friends. Over this slow burn, you do discover aspects of their character within the clever repartee.
Matt goes from one failure to another, doesn’t know how to text, feels jealous when Shawn becomes the writer he wants to be and enjoys Matt’s mother’s affection.
Great performances by the two leads in this moving study of human nature.
While it is a good play in many ways about the nature of sport and how men relate to it generally, it lacks depth in some areas: race, politics and relationships are barely mentioned.
Nevertheless, it is entertaining and absorbing and has good dialogue.
All pictures: ©Hampstead Theatre/Mark Douet
Acv rating: *** (out of five)
Listing
‘King James’ by Rajiv Joseph until January 4 at Hampstead Theatre, Downstairs, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London, NW3 3EU.
https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2024/king-james/#details
Age guidance 14+ show is 1 hour 40 mins including an interval.
