1 of 2
Photography by John Gitchoff
Fish (Bernard Gilbert) and Jay (Akron Lanier Watson) square off in the ring while facing the audience. Fight promoter Max (Lance Baker), center, looks on.
2 of 2
Photograph by John Gitchoff
Fight promoter Max (an excellent Lance Baker) kicks off the dynamic The Royale at the Rep’s Studio Theater.
A pulsing, percussive rhythm opens The Royale in The Rep’s studio. Fight Promoter Max (Lance Baker), lit by a single spotlight, steps forward. “In this corner…” he says and one of the cleverest ways to stage a prize fight unfolds. The rhythm, keenly kept by ensemble members Maalik Shakoor and Jarris Williams, thunders along as the fighters enter their boxing stances. They face the audience instead of one another. Each landed punch is accentuated with heavy stomps, and the actor who was hit stumbles and recovers as the driving beat decrescendos.
There is a reason that the ringside boxing ropes are around the entire theater and not just around the stage. The Royale, by Marco Ramirez, is able to draw you into the fight.
The Royale is loosely based on the “Fight of the Century” between Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight, and James Jeffries, an undefeated white boxer dubbed “The Great White Hope.” The year was 1910, and white Americans were hoping Jeffries would stop the arrogant and successful Johnson. But Johnson won, and riots broke out as whites attacked and lynched blacks across the country.
In The Royale, rising prizefighter Jay “The Sport” Jackson (Akron Lanier Watson) is planning his “Fight of the Century” with an undefeated white fighter named Bixby. The resulting flare-up in racial tension brings Jackson to a crossroads. Can he still fight, knowing that it will put others in danger?
Since Ramirez’s script is partially a rumination on the motivations of Jay Jackson, the person playing the somewhat diva-ish sports phenom is essential. Fortunately, Watson shines with effortless charisma and ferocious energy in his Rep debut. In fact, the entire cast turns in terrific performances, particularly Bernard Gilbert, who plays Fish, an up-and-coming boxer who fights Jackson at the beginning of the play, and Samuel Ray Gates, who plays corner man Wynton. His story about his early days in boxing gives the play its name.
The set, by Brian Sidney Bembridge, is as lean and as smart as the play itself, consisting of just two wooden platforms, a heavy bag, and a few other touches that can transition from the bare bones boxing ring to a fancy white-only hotel.
Sound designer Mikhail Fiksel also made some wise choices, particularly in having bebop jazz playing before the play starts, since jazz fans and boxing fans will know that Miles Davis wrote a tribute album to the champ.
Ramirez’s work also seems to respond to Howard Sackler’s 1967 Pulitzer Prize–winning play (and 1970 film) The Great White Hope. That work focused on Johnson’s love relationships with white women, which, as you can imagine in the early 1900s, got Johnson into trouble. In The Royale, it is Jay Jackson’s sister who plays a central role in getting the champ to confront the consequences of his quest for greatness.
That confrontation rattles Jackson, but in the end, he steps into the ring, not in spite of the racism roiling all around him, but because of it.
The Royale at the Rep Studio Theatre runs through March 26. Show times are 7 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 4 & 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 & 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $43.50 to $67.50. Visit The Rep or call 314-968-4925 for more information.
