King James (Old Fitz) ★★½

Written by Rajiv Joseph. Australian Premiere. Old Fitz Theatre. Jun 6-29, 2024.

King James at Old Fitz Theatre shocked me on multiple levels. I was shocked to discover it was only written in 2022 – if felt much more dated. I was shocked it was getting strong reviews – I literally don’t understand how I could have watched the same show as other reviewers. And no, it’s not because it was about sports. 

I debated whether to review or not. I was not invited or given tickets, I paid my own money, so I had no obligation to provide coverage. And I do this to help promote and boost good shows at a time when companies are struggling. But seeing as the show is near the end of its run, and it has already had a number of very glowing write ups, I don’t feel like I’m kicking a show when it’s down.

Two guys meet in a bar. It may sound like the set-up to a joke, but it’s not. They are both fans of their local basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the rising star player LeBron James. Matt (Aaron Glenane) has to offload his Season Tickets because he needs the cash. Shawn (Tinashe Mangwana) wants to buy them, but can’t afford Matt’s asking price. The thing is, Matt doesn’t want to sell them to some fly-by-night fan who’s only started supporting the Cavaliers now that LeBron has made them a hit. He wants them to go to a “real fan”… and Shawn fits the bill. This “meet cute” becomes the start of a decades long friendship.

To sum up a lot of my issues with this production I’ll just say that everything rang as false to me. From elements of the script (Matt doesn’t know about text messaging in 2004?), to the set (an excruciatingly long set change killed what little momentum the show was getting), to the lack of chemistry between the leads. Everything felt as thin and artificial as the stone-face wallpaper and “stained glass” mural above the bar.

Now let me just say, this was not a perfect environment for a performance. A leak meant that a large section of the seating in the theatre was blocked off, and there were only a dozen people in attendance. Not the warmest of rooms for the two actors to face and that would affect any performer.

But I just didn’t believe in the core friendship, and if that doesn’t work the play falls apart.  When the script pivots to issues of race, the conversation was so awkward and unrealistic my eyes rolled. The script kept “telling” us things that directions and performances simply didn’t “show”. 

At its heart this is a play about male friendship. We know there are big problems with real world isolation and men’s mental health. At a time when many people struggle to say the word “masculinity” without putting the word “toxic” in front of it, we need more stories modelling healthy patterns of male behaviour and friendships. Especially for straight men. We need plays like King James. Which is why I think I was especially disappointed by this one. It floats around a topic worthy of our attention, then runs away to lay the blame on race relations.

One repeated line comes from Matt saying “This is the problem with America”… to which I just thought, “Who cares?” Without anything of substance to say about male friendship or modern masculinity, and only a token exploration of interracial friendships, King James just doesn’t have anything to say to Australia in 2024, at least, nothing that isn’t being better expressed in other plays. 

So maybe I just saw a bad performance, while others saw it with all the buzz of Opening Night. But hey, that’s the fearful beauty of live theatre – every night is different.