Left – Gideon Mzembe. Cover – Pacharo Mzembe, Gideon Mzembe and Kenneth Ransom. Photos – Brett BoardmanWhile unconventional, it is an accepted occasional tradition for certain theatre productions to begin before the actual narrative kicks off – the theatrical equivalent of what television calls a “cold open.” From the moment the doors of the performance space are opened, actors are already onstage performing either a rehearsed or semi-improvised sequence of “stage business” while patrons enter and take their seats. Typically this involves little audible (or at any rate consequential) dialogue, but sets the scene for the play and creates an immersive atmosphere.
Rarely has the technique been more effective than in this La Boite production, which uses as its set a gym, dominated by a raised, ropeless boxing ring. The entire cast is present, energetically working out, practicing their strikes and footwork, doing lunges, step-ups and sundry other conditioning exercises. After a solid fifteen minutes of that before every show, it’s no wonder this cast is not only in terrific shape, but brings immense credibility and a (literally) sweaty veracity to the athleticism and high-energy tension of the play about to unfold.
The story they tell is that of Steve “The Killer”, a young boxer with a string of undefeated bouts that has him on the cusp of the proverbial shot at the big-time, to become number one contender for the Australian light-heavyweight championship. Steve is fast and powerful with his gloves on, but every time he steps into the ring lately he is starting to see things that shouldn’t be there. He is transported between punches to scenes from his past, and a troubled past it is.
“Steve the Killer” is the unintentionally yet bitterly ironic ring-name for Isa, a former child solider turned refugee, who came to Australia at the age of 17 from the Congo, in which he led an incredibly traumatic early life. Witnessing the brutal rape and murder of his family at the hands of a marauding warlord when he was only 10 years old, Isa was forcibly recruited as one of the genocidal madman’s legion of child soldiers, and forced to take part in subsequent massacres. The extent of Isa’s direct personal participation in war crimes is one of the first questions posed to him in his refugee interviews, and coming to terms with the answer to that question becomes a throughline for the play. As does his seeking information about his missing brother, who was the only surviving member of his family to escape both the initial massacre and subsequent kidnapping.
Although using a fairly standard theatrical device of nonlinear storytelling, the play does so with an effective gimmick. Isa’s training and two key boxing matches serve as the frame narrative for a series of progressive flashbacks, with his opponents and trainers doubling as various characters back in Africa, and eventually also playing their main “present day” roles in scenes set chronologically earlier than the beginning of the main story. The choreography in these sparring sequences is excellent, and with the slap of the leather gloves to flesh, it does a very credible job of allowing one to suspend disbelief that you are watching real boxing onstage. Making these matches in the frame story exciting and visceral is key to propelling the disjoined, flashback-dependent narrative along and maintaining a sense of both continuity and urgency.
It is, however, these memory sequences which are the meat of the play. Isa’s past is poignant, and although not without some lighter moments, is predominantly pretty horrifying stuff. The violence is mostly described rather than shown, and what little that is directly depicted uses somewhat symbolic rather than naturalistic staging, yet becomes scarcely any less shocking for that. More upsetting by far than the actual violence itself is the way it warps the minds of the young child soldiers forced into committing these atrocities.
This is personified by the character of Kadogo, a 13-year-old “veteran” child soldier who takes the freshly-drafted Isa under his wing. From his own perspective Kadogo is befriending and helping Isa – and to a certain extent he is protecting him from their mutual captor, the warlord – but he is also abusive and mercurial. This is a deeply disturbed boy that has been twisted into a delusional sadist, one who describes his horrific acts of murder and mutilation with a distressingly normalised sense of glee, as though bragging about winning schoolyard games.
Past and present converge as Isa reaches the biggest match of his career, and between the bodyblows, his memories vacillate amongst the later circumstances of becoming a refugee, an Australian immigrant, and then beginning to train as a boxer, contrasted with revisiting the earlier key trauma of his time as a child soldier, and his increasingly desperate need to atone. The play reaches a climax which I won’t spoil, other than to say that its final note is both downbeat and hopeful in equal measure.
Although not breaking any drastically new ground in terms of form, this is an excellent production of a highly engaging, occasionally funny, frequently touching and often disturbing play, addressing very important subject matter. Filled with strong stagecraft and effective production design, it is ultimately a worthy showcase for some very fine actors. It is a strong ensemble across the board who do some very effective doubling, yet one must single out both Gideon Mzembe, who does excellent turns as the warlord, Isa’s brother and his final opponent, and especially Thuso Lekwape, as a fellow Congolese boxing trainer, but chiefly as Kadogo the aforementioned slightly older child soldier. It is a virtuoso performance, taking a profoundly disturbing, almost larger-than-life character, yet eschewing clichés of supervillainesque arch theatricality and, crucially, even eliciting a whisker of sympathy for this truly lost boy who became a monster in the employ of an even greater one.
Of course the highest plaudits must go to Pacharo Mzembe in the central part of Isa. Despite being the only actor who does not double any roles, he nevertheless shows his range in portraying the character at several different ages. He transitions from a happy-go-lucky child, to a victimised adolescent, to a teenager rediscovering his humanity with the help of a kind yet sarcastic girl in the refugee camps, to a youth learning to box, before becoming a successful young man on the cusp of championship yet prey to his resurfacing memories plaguing him in the ring. It is a tremendously appealing performance filled with a great sense of fragile yet ultimately indomitable humanity. Although his hands may not be clean, Isa does not allow his experiences as a child soldier to pervert him as Kadogo’s did, and the duelling performances of Pacharo Mzembe and Thuso Lekwape in their key scenes together illustrate these divergent paths of the broken and unbowed human sprits.
Future D. Fidel’s Prize Fighter is a scorching, terrific play that will take you to some dark places, but ultimately renew your faith in mankind’s willingness to change and persevere.
A La Boite Theatre Company & Brisbane Festival production presented in association with Sydney Festival
Prize Fighter
by Future D. Fidel
Director Todd MacDonald
Venue: Upstairs Theatre
Dates: 6 – 22 January 2017
Tickets: $72 – $49
Bookings: 02 9699 3444
