Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King
Show – King James
Playwright – Rajiv Joseph
Production Company/Theatre space – Alberta Theatre Projects, Martha Cohen Theatre, The Arts Commons.
Length – 2 ACT (2 hours, 15 mins, one intermission)
Genre/s – Comedy bromance
Premise – Selling his basketball season tickets, a bar owner meets a fellow fan and writer so beginning a friendship that continues through success and failure, their family relationships, dating histories, and careers expressed though the heightened emotions that team sports engender.
Why this play? Why now? – Focusing on male friendship and sports, this successful show, performed by a cast of two, has been produced all over North America.
Curiosities – I wondered as a non-sports enthusiast if I would get as much out of the play as others, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Notable Moment – The slow-mo moment.
Notable writing – Romance/bromance plots are notoriously hard to write because there is only ever one storyline: person meets person, person loses person, and person gets person back again. What makes this fresh is the depth and passion these men display which is usually only socially acceptable in the context of the game. Talented award-winning playwright Joseph has a fine ear for dialogue, comic banter, and character development. Thematically, he shows how these men from different backgrounds and race ultimately are from the same tribe – the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Notable performances – Devin Mackinnon and Michael Blake are fresh from their run with the same director from Theatre Aquarius. Consequently, the play is tight.
Notable design/Production – Award winning Set Designer Brian Dudkiewicz’s elicited applause as the turntable revolved to reveal a secondary location. I found the SOUND LEVELS OF THE LIVE DJ HARD TO CONVERSE OVER AND HEADACHE INDUCING but it did relay a certain ringside energy.
Notable direction – Haysam Kadri, assisted by basketball enthusiast Kodie Rollan, directs like a champion winning coach.
One reason to see this show – Slam dunk crowd pleaser.
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