Prize Fighter La Boite 2015. Photo by Dylan Evans.
The name of this play is not ‘prizefighter’. Instead, the separation of the two words is a statement of intent about what the tortured, driven protagonist serves to gain over the 70 minutes of this extraordinary work of theatre. And also, about what the audience takes away from the immersion in two worlds.
It’s not a story for everyone, but it’s a play that everyone should see.
Isa is now ‘Steve the Killer’ in the hyperbolic way of pugilists’ names. A Congolese young man, Isa arrived in Brisbane as a refugee and found his way to a gym. So well has he done under the terrier boxing trainer, Luke that he is very close to being a contender for the light heavyweight belt. This white, female, hardcase trainer is ringside as the bell clangs and bloody, lingering ghosts of his boy soldier past arise to blur Isa’s vision. His distraction will put one prize beyond him but provide the clarity for a greater achievement.
Prize Fighter is physically impressive as the cast participate in all manner of gym activities preshow, state setting the atmosphere around the dominating, raised, rope free, mat. With thumping music and words like ‘nigga’ and ‘bitches’ escaping the tracks, the stage is set for brutally honest work. As the full contact rounds continue, the authenticity of which is stunningly realistic, events insinuate themselves to explain the red mist attacks that haunt Isa’s boxing technique.
Pacharo Mzembe plays Isa with a heart breaking vulnerability inside the power of an impressive athlete. He plays Isa at six and at 10 and 16 with a skilled empathy and quiet, lonely lostness. A non-verbal despair pervades his work and the whole cast impresses physically and emotionally as they play many roles in Isa’s narrative. Soul destroyed and spewing a hate filled mantra of powerlessness is Isa’s fellow soldier played in a magnificent performance by Mandela Mathia. Ratidzo Wendy Mambo as his girlfriend is a firebrand possessed of warmth and a lightness of touch that fills the heart.
Very technically astute audio provides both a backdrop for the scenes, the distant pound of a speedbag being worked, and the pointed, poignancy of a celebratory song among the horror. Also masterful is the lighting design with a saturated palette of eerie hi UV blue, counterpoint pink and a judicious, emotive use of red which is offset by the white of the on-stage lighting. As with dancers, the male form is sculpted by the torso level throw of this side lighting. The red of Isa’s trunks is also symbolic inside the initial black, grey and white of the costumes and the grey, two dimensional weapons in the sharply intercut flashback scenes are implicative storytelling.
Congolese-Australian writer Future D. Fidel’s robust, truthful text freezes action and choreographs the present and past with a pace that delicately builds towards the climax as the direction from Todd MacDonald foregrounds the personal in the political. It is doubtful that any spectator remains unbruised by Prize Fighter, a play which reminds the watcher to be watchful. Causes may fall off the front page but crimes against children resound through any society which is not on its guard.
5 stars ★★★★★
Prize Fighter
Writer: Future D. Fidel
Director: Todd MacDonald
Dramaturg: Chris Kohn
Designer: Bill Haycock
Lighting Designer: David Walters
Composer & Sound Designer: Felix Cross
Sound Design Remix: Busty Beatz
Video Designer : Optikal Bloc
Movement & Fight Director: Nigel Poulton
Cast Includes: Margi Brown-Ash, Gideon Mzembe, Pacharo Mzembe, Mandela Mathia, Marcus Johnson, and Ratidzo Wendy Mambo
Stage Management: Daniel Sinclair
31 October – 3 November 2018
Illawarra Performing Arts Centre
