Review: ‘King James’ is a basketball play that’s about a lot more than basketball
The title “King James” refers neither to a Bible nor to British royalty. The king in this two-person play is LeBron James, but playwright Rajiv Joseph is more interested in the drama James inspires off court rather than anything he might have accomplished since his rookie year with the Cleveland Cavaliers more than 20 years ago.
Plays about sports aren’t all that common — theater folk and sports folk are often
considered at opposite ends of the pop culture spectrum. But that’s part of what makes Joseph’s play so interesting. Over the span of the play’s 12 years, we see two Cleveland fans bond over their enthusiasm for basketball (and for James in particular) and navigate the rough waters of adult life, career fluctuations and the challenges of friendship.
One of the most produced plays in the country this year, “King James” makes its Bay Area debut in a terrific TheatreWorks Silicon Valley production at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Giovanna Sardelli, the company’s artistic director, is a longtime collaborator of playwright Joseph, and her direction of his deceptively simple script brings out some powerful emotion in this story of two men who are not having the easiest time with their lives.
It all starts simply enough. It’s 2004, and Matt (Jordan Lane Shappell) desperately needs cash, so he’s trying to sell his season tickets to the Cavs during James’ first year with the team. Shawn (Kenny Scott) wants to buy them, but the price is just too steep.
It’s after hours in the wine bar where Matt works, and the two banter and barter and eventually come to a deal that will evolve into a life-changing friendship for each of them.
We’re often told that men who can’t discuss their feelings bond over sports, and that’s sort of what happens here. Joseph constructs his play like a basketball game — with four quarters and a half-time break (but no cheerleaders) — and over each quarter, withs several years passed in between, we watch Matt and Shawn make some questionable life choices, mature (a little) and even question the notion of being a fan.
“When has fanaticism ever been a good thing?” Shawn wonders.
Shappell as Matt has the harder job because his character is one of those reluctant adults who whines about his parents, even as he brings home his laundry and happily lets his mom cook for him. He’s the kind of guy who will happily share his opinion about “what’s wrong with America,” and even though he can be kind of a brat, Shappell softens his edges enough to show a man struggling to come into his own.
Scott’s Shawn is a warmer, more charming character from the outset. Shawn is a budding writer who has just sold his first story and has aspirations to get out of Cleveland and chase success in New York or L.A.
It’s interesting that playwright Joseph doesn’t initially make a big deal of the fact that Shawn is Black and Matt is White. Their friendship and their common bond provide the primary focus until an argument takes a surprising turn in the wake of LeBron’s shocking decision to leave Cleveland for Miami in 2010.
Local sports fans should probably be given a trigger warning at this point: The play’s final scene involves the Cavaliers’ 2016 defeat of the Warriors in the NBA Finals, and at the Sunday matinee performance, there was some gentle booing from the audience.
Whether Matt and Shawn can repair their bond fuels much of the play’s more interesting second half, and Scott and Shappell dig deep into their roles, and suddenly a play about sports has fully transformed into a soul-searching drama about what it means to be truly connected to another human being through time.
For both characters, their love of sports created touchstones that stretch back to
childhood and continue to provide meaning for them as adults. They started out as fans, become friends and ended up someplace complicated but meaningful. That kind of evolution has a universal appeal to it, and that’s what gives “King James” its drive and its ability to score, quarter after quarter, in what turns out to be a remarkable theatrical game.
Chad Jones has been writing about Bay Area theater since 1992; theaterdogs.net.
‘KING JAMES’
By Rajiv Joseph, presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Through: Nov. 3
Where: Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View
Running time: 2 hours, with one 15-minute intermission
Tickets: $34-$115; www.theatreworks.org