A HEAVYWEIGHT tale
Capital Repertory gets inside the Ring for “the Royale.”
Bell sounds. Fight underway. The opponents move in, getting the feel of the ring, sizing each other up. Tensions rise as the punches start to fly. Give ’em the jab, the hook, the uppercut. Protect yourself, protect yourself.
The blows connect. They land and hit hard. You stay upright, thinking and assessing, waiting for an opening. Ready to strike again. There’s the second bell. Round one done. Breathe. Rest and regroup. Things are still just getting started.
In Marco Ramirez’s play “The Royale,” which opens Friday night at Capital Repertory Theatre for a three-week run, there are no knockouts. In fact, no actual punches are thrown. Yet the 80-minute oneact play is being staged with the intention of generating the headlong rush and gut-wrenching tension of an actual boxing match.
“Once the bell rings, there’s no letting up, no chance to feel comfortable,” says lead actor Thomas Silcott. “Be ready to be bowled over.”
Silcott plays the role of Jay, an unbeatable boxer. But he’s African-american and the setting is the first decade of the 20th century when Jim Crow laws were pervasive. The world heavy weight champion is a white man who refuses to enter the ring with “the colored champ.” Jay’s manager negotiates and persists until the bout is finally scheduled.
“The Royale” is loosely based on the life of Jack Johnson, who made history in 1908 by becoming the first black heavyweight world champion. The script from 2013 is by Marco Ramirez, a contributing writer to the TV series “Orange Is the New Black.” The Rep’s production is based on a widely acclaimed staging of “The Royale” that went on the boards last fall at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Mass.
Megan Sandberg-zakian, artistic director of that troupe, returns as stage director along with most of her original cast. Kyle Vincent Terry again serves as the fight choreographer.
“My job is to put the energy of boxing into the bodies of the actors in a way that makes the audience feel all the violence, defensiveness and fear,” says Terry. “We’re letting the audience breathe into that energy and intensity without the nagging thought that the punches aren’t real. It’s the emotional ride without the labor of fighting.”
The bells that begin and end the play are no artifice. They’re one of the punctuations in a boxing match, along with the footwork and the punches.
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