Curve, Leicester
25th April, 2023
“You can’t win, neither of you”
In 2017, the National Theatre established the Theatre Nation
Partnerships network. It strives to support the ‘long-term health of local
theatre audiences’ by reaching new audiences and particularly engaging young
people in priority areas across England. As part of its commitment to mid-scale
touring, and in partnership with Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Roy Williams’ 2010
play Sucker Punch opened at Curve last night. Set in the 1980s, the play
uses boxing as a cipher to explore social and racial division in British
society. Williams’
portrayal of the boxing world and how it is entwined with identity is unflinching.
But what is perhaps most striking is the play’s contemporaneity.
It’s a seminal play, surely a modern classic, and crucial it’s being toured to
a wider audience for the first time.
We first meet Leon and Troy arguing over the chores they’ve
been assigned as punishment for breaking into a local boxing club. They soon
catch the attention of Charlie, a bigoted, washed-up gym owner who trains them
to fight. The play follows the two boys as they progress down different paths:
Leon grows in stature as a serious UK boxing contender, while Troy compromises
his talent as he rails against the police, eventually leaving London for a new
life in the US. The boys also embody diverse attitudes towards the prejudice
and injustice they encounter on a daily basis. Troy is angry, lashing out
against institutionalised racism, while Leon takes a more fatalistic view, seeking
acceptance from his white, working class trainer/father figure Charlie. There
is a sense that Charlie is genuinely affectionate and proud of Leon, yet he
cannot hide his bigotry when he discovers the relationship between his daughter
Becky and Leon.
Williams scrutinises aspects of racial and masculine identity
amidst Thatcherite Britain against the backdrop of the Brixton Riots. However,
the play highlights how these issues are just as pertinent in 21st
century Britain. Sucker Punch premiered just one year before the London
riots in 2011, ignited by the police shooting of Mark Duggan. In 2023, we see
it through the lens of the ongoing Black Lives Matter campaign against
institutionalised racism which came more into prominence following the death of
George Floyd in the USA. The themes explored in Sucker Punch echo through the decades. It
becomes increasingly obvious that the boys have little control over their own
lives. The imposing Ray gets into Troy’s face, telling him ‘I made you […] You
are mine’, and Charlie manipulates his bigoted relationship with Leon for his
own gain. He presents him with an ultimatum; he will become Leon’s manager, but
only if he stops seeing Becky.
While excelling in sport, Williams highlights the inevitable
contradictions in the boxers’ roles. At the end of Act 1, Leon fights Charlie’s
ex-pupil. The ‘white, pale faces […] cheering Tommy on, telling him to bury
me’, demonstrate the way boxing, in its legitimised violence, can, in the worst
cases, become a vicarious outlet for racial hatred. Despite the
two protagonists being set up as opposites in attitude and philosophy, in one
of the most elucidating passages, Leon’s father offers some home truths ahead
of the climactic match: ‘You can’t win, neither of you […] they love nothing
better than to see two black men beat up on each other. They too afraid to do
it themselves, so they get you to do it’.
Nathan Powell’s production is more literal than the original
Royal Court staging. Whereas that production turned the entire space into a
boxing ring, Sandra Falase’s design plunges us into a grotty gym: a shipping container
is used as a makeshift office, and sentimentalised photos of fights from years
gone by adorn the walls. From this, we get a fuller sense of the world the
characters inhabit, and it also allows Powell to bring out some of the lighter
moments in the play. The production is fleshed out by some engaging
performances. Shem Hamilton traces Leon’s arc extremely impressively. He goes
from displaying Leon’s scrappy energy, doing tricks with the skipping rope and bouncing
around the ring, to focusing his performance as the play progresses to show
Leon becoming more disciplined. Liam Smith plays the older East End trainer
very well. In the first act, he embodies Charlie’s masculine performativity and
beagle-eyed focus which slips away to something more desperate in the second act.
As well as attitudes to race, Powell also highlights the play’s emphasis on toxic
masculinity particularly in how the teenagers talk to Becky. Portrayed by Poppy
Winter as fierce and strong-willed, we’re reminded that she’s really the
strongest character in the play.
In his earlier play Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (2002),
and in his later blistering Death of England trilogy (2020-2021, co-written
with Clint Dyer), Williams uses football to explore English national identity
in relation to race and class. Through the more confrontational metaphor and
concentrated space of a boxing ring, Sucker Punch presents us with the
bleak reality that racism and violence are even more a pressing issue now than they
ever were.
Sucker Punch plays at Curve, Leicester until 29th April. It
then tours until 24th June. For further information please visit https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/whats-on/sucker-punch/
 |
| Shem Hamilton as Leon in Sucker Punch. Credit: Manuel Harlan |
No comments:
Post a Comment