Roy Williams’ “Sucker Punch” at Studio Theatre is an exhilarating analysis of friendship, race relations and loyalty. It takes place from 1981 to 1988 in a gym in South London and various boxing rings. It’s so evocative of the time and place, you can almost hear Margaret Thatcher’s voice in the background and the sound of race riots screaming through the city.
“Sucker Punch” begins with two Jamaican teenagers, living in London in 1981: Leon (Sheldon Best) and Troy (Emmanuel Brown) have been caught breaking into a gym belonging to Charlie (Sean Gormley). Instead of having them arrested, Charlie keeps the boys on, to train and clean the gym. When Leon turns out to be faster with his fists that Charlie’s star boxer, Tommy (Lucas Beck), Charlie decides to train Leon to be his next big winner.
Troy travels to Detroit, trying to put behind him the racism and hardships of his life in London. For Leon, losing their friendship is unthinkable. But Leon’s life is all about unthinkable things, like giving up his white girlfriend, Becky (Dana Levanovsky) because she’s Charlie’s daughter and Charlie won’t allow him to date her.
| Onstage |
| ‘Sucker Punch’ |
| Where: Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW |
| When: Through April 8 |
| Info: $35 to $69; 202-332-3300; studiotheatre.org |
Also unthinkable is the presence of Leon’s father (Michael Rogers), who visits Leon regularly to beg for money. Despite all these pressures, Leon perseveres and achieves fame, first as an amateur, then as a professional. He even goes to the Olympics and brings home a medal.
Williams cleverly creates a character who is externally all raw energy and power, but who is internally as gentle as a lamb. Whether he’s admitting to Becky that he can’t stop loving her or telling Troy he still remembers their youth, Leon is a sensitive soul, acted by Best with grace and intelligence.
The external portion of his role, in which Leon trains rigorously, doing pushups and jumping rope, is an impressive combination of realistic and impressionistic detail, with Leon narrating his career, demonstrating how his speed and fancy footwork led to various titles, wealth and fame.
The explosive physical aspects of the production (Brian MacDevitt’s lighting design, Lindsay Jones’ sound design and Rick Sordelet’s fight choreography) underscore the volcanic nature of Leon’s boxing life. Daniel Conway’s set creates a central area for sparring, with dirty lockers and punching bags in the rear. With the addition of mirrored material for the final big fight, the gym becomes an arena where two contenders fight to the finish.
The entire ensemble is powerful, particularly Brown, Gormley and Beck.
In the end, Leon has learned even harsher lessons than he knew at the beginning of the play. With Williams’ focused, robust prose and under Leah Gardiner’s assured direction, “Sucker Punch” is a knockout.
