PicksInSix Review: KING JAMES - Steppenwolf Theatre Company
“CLEVER IN CONSTRUCTION… QUICK IN DELIVERY.”
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor Ronald Keaton
“KING JAMES” is a surprisingly deceptive, complex play that works at Steppenwolf through April 10. It’s written by ensemble member Rajiv Joseph, staged by the excellent, award-winning director Kenny Leon, and charming in how it sneaks up on you with the tale it tells. As the audience enters, it is greeted by music that might be played in a sports arena, complete with DJ (a fun appearance throughout the evening by Khloe Janel, who says not a word), accompanied by dancing lights and the audience clapping along. The sheer craft of the theatre itself is on full display through an effective, two-headed stage design by Tony Award-winning designer Todd Rosenthal that rotates between acts. One side is a lovely little wine bar; the other is a full-of-items pawn shop.
On the surface it’s quite a simple plot. Matt (Chris Perfetti) owns a bar in Cleveland to which Shawn (Glenn Davis) has come to purchase from Matt a season ticket package for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Both men have an unending admiration for LeBron James and, as a result, know and share their historical knowledge about LBJ and the Cavs in general. Matt is short on funds from another issue in his life, so he asks a price for the tickets that Shawn simply cannot afford. From there, the exchange between these two disparate personalities grows and flourishes.
Each of them sees a rough path to walk during the story. Matt wants to be supportive of Shawn, who has aspirations to be a writer. Shawn confesses that he has just been accepted to graduate school, which surprises Matt because he had no real knowledge of this side of Shawn’s life. Later on, Matt has to close and sell his bar, unbeknownst to Shawn, because of the financial difficulties inherent in the venture. As he puts it: “I just got crushed.” This kind of moment is repeated throughout the play, as these men—whether consciously or not—keep information from each other about their individual lives, which makes for endless clashes and an obvious sense that they have difficulty in sharing much of anything. The one thing they have in common is, yes, LBJ and the Cavaliers. And yet…
There ends up being much to consider in this play’s theme—contemporary male relationships; the effect of sports on a city that supports them, as well as the legacy they leave; our societal penchant for celebrity and how we allow it to affect us. Through all the pageantry and community and even tribalism, there is this tight little story of two friends. Total opposites in stance and cultural reference. Yet they decide that the seeming limit to their friendship is okay, and that through this one issue, their friendship can transcend onward to include family and goals, both shared and individual.
The play is written in four scenes that Mr. Joseph calls “quarters” which are actually linear benchmarks from the career of Mr. James. The dialogue is easy to absorb (there is a sitcom-type influence in the patter, a good thing in comparison to all the seriousness the real COVID world now sees) and both actors deliver it with ease. Mr. Perfetti, a familiar face from the ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary,” gleefully creates a Matt who displays a Richard Lewis-type neurosis on life and rarely lets up. Mr. Davis, the new artistic director at Steppenwolf, shows a wonderfully light touch in Shawn that nevertheless challenges Matt to be real and open, while simultaneously learning to do so.
“KING JAMES” is clever in construction and quick in delivery. The clashing constancy between two intelligent, passionate minds who demonstrate a genuine, reciprocal love—as well as the extremes to which each of them tries to come out on top—is fascinating and reasonable, given the social media-drenched paradigm we live in, a praise to Mr. Joseph, Mr. Leon and the cast.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL www.solochicagotheatre.com
PHOTO|Michael Brosilow
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
presents
Downstairs Theater
1650 N. Halsted St.
through April 10, 2022
(312) 335-1650
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