Tag Archives: Cheng Keng

GOING FOR GOLD

★★★★

Park Theatre

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GOING FOR GOLD at Park Theatre

★★★★

“A gripping and heartfelt true story”

Based on a true story, Going for Gold is a moving retrospective about a British boxing champion’s greatest triumphs and losses, told from the ringside perspective of the woman who loved him.

Yes, there is boxing onstage and you will hear the Rocky theme.

Written by Lisa Lintott, Going for Gold tells the story of two-time National ABA and Commonwealth Games 1974 middleweight champion, Frankie Lucas (Jazz Lintott). Frankie came to London from Saint Vincent as part of the Windrush generation, and we first meet him as a nine-year-old when he joins a boxing club in Croydon. As he trots off, a woman enters and addresses the audience: “I’m not his mother”. This is Gene (Llewella Gideon), who fell in love with Frankie when they were both teenagers and soon after gave birth to their son, Michael (Daniel Francis-Swaby). The immediate break of the fourth wall and the age difference between the actors portraying Gene (50s) and Frankie (30s) tells us that this play is Gene’s memory of her long-term boxer boyfriend. She is our narrator, with Gideon showcasing a natural gravitas that compels the spectator. The play showcases highlights and challenges from Frankie’s life. He valiantly fights against systemic racism to build his sporting legacy in 70s England, but at the expense of his family.

The stage design (Erin Guan) is symbolic of Frankie’s battles outside the boxing ring. We see a living room to the left, a gym office to the right and a boxing ring in the middle. In the left corner is Gene, urging Frankie to come home to see Michael. In the right corner is Frankie’s trainer George (Nigel Boyle), who also urges him to go home to his “missus and son”. In the middle is Frankie whose hunger for success turns into self-sabotaging paranoia. As boxer and trainer, Lintott and Boyle make a fabulous pair. Boyle is exceptional, finding a cool balance between being a stern coach and supportive brother figure. Lintott sometimes struggles with the Saint Vincent accent, but he commands attention with a suave presence and spectacular comedic timing.

The stellar collaboration of the creative team shines during the boxing matches. The play covers Frankie’s greatest fights from 1971 to 1980, executed with excellent movement direction by David Gilbert and fight choreography from Rupert Charmak. What makes the fights impressive, is the clever use of cinematic devices onstage. Here, a knockout is shown in slow-motion, supported by foley boxing sounds (Lo Wu) and strobe lighting (Cheng Keng). A cut-away shot is recreated by jumping between the stage and the projector. The projector shows us archival footage of the real Frankie Lucas fighting in the ring. Lights come on, and we see Frankie falling onto his corner stool onstage. This allows the audience to become immersed in both the public spectacle of boxing and the private moments between boxer and trainer.

The play’s only real issue comes at the end. Frankie and Michael have a conversation that rushes to get key plot points across to the audience before the ending. The unnatural pace (which is at odds with Philip J Morris and Xanthus’ otherwise spot on direction) prevents the moment from having the emotional impact the play seeks in the final scene. Despite this, the story has a satisfying ending. The show’s star is Llewella Gideon who seamlessly navigates between being present onstage and addressing the audience, thus delivering a stunning performance.

A gripping and heartfelt true story about a boxer who was forgotten by history but championed by his family, Going for Gold makes for an insightful and exciting evening at the theatre.


GOING FOR GOLD at Park Theatre

Reviewed on 12th November 2024

by Lara van Huyssteen

Photography by James Potter

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE FORSYTE SAGA | ★★★★★ | October 2024
AUTUMN | ★★½ | October 2024
23.5 HOURS | ★★★ | September 2024
BITTER LEMONS | ★★★½ | August 2024
WHEN IT HAPPENS TO YOU | ★★★★★ | August 2024
THE MARILYN CONSPIRACY | ★★★★ | June 2024
IVO GRAHAM: CAROUSEL | ★★★★ | June 2024
A SINGLE MAN | ★★★★ | May 2024
SUN BEAR | ★★★ | April 2024
HIDE AND SEEK | ★★★★ | March 2024
COWBOYS AND LESBIANS | ★★★★ | February 2024
HIR | ★★★★ | February 2024

GOING FOR GOLD

GOING FOR GOLD

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Pennyroyal

★★★★

Finborough Theatre

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Pennyroyal

Pennyroyal

Finborough Theatre

Reviewed – 14th July 2022

★★★★

 

“Roslyn has created a world where sadness and humour have a strong bond”

 

Despite serious safety concerns, the plant Pennyroyal has often been used as medicine. Most commonly for fatigue and the common cold but in extreme cases to end pregnancy. Despite the appeal of its lilac-mauve flowers and spearmint fragrance, it harbours secret ingredients that kick with a potentially fatal toxicity. Lucy Roslyn’s play, “Pennyroyal”, is beautifully structured in a similarly natural way. Her words, stylised and arranged to catch the ear, possess undoubtable healing powers whilst simultaneously betraying the veins of venom that lay close to the surface. It is these two fundamental characteristics that drive the protagonists of Roslyn’s sophisticated and acute drama of enduring love.

Inspired by Edith Wharton’s novella, ‘The Old Maid’, Roslyn introduces us to sisters Daphne and Christine, and immediately ploughs the ugly and the beautiful into the same bed. Daphne (Madison Clare) was diagnosed with ‘Premature Ovarian Insufficiency’ at nineteen. Before the diagnosis, she didn’t give a thought about her ‘expected’ roles as a woman or, later in life, a mother. But with the chance now taken away it preoccupies her, and she is haunted by the ghosts of unborn children. Older sister Christine, played by Roslyn, is on hand to give her support, as well as her eggs that she doesn’t need for herself. Of course, it doesn’t go to plan. But the failed dreams and expectations of both women knot them together in an ever-tightening embrace that is suffocating as well as life-enhancing.

Josh Roche’s styled staging sharpens the dialogue and is complemented by Roslyn’s and Clare’s fine, natural performances. They pay little heed to the fourth wall but the switch from action to interaction is seamless. Similarly, the shifts in tone encapsulate the full and complicated spectrum of sisterhood emotions. They can never quite escape the shadow of the absent, unseen mother; sometimes just wandering about in the garden, sometimes six feet under it, depending on the shifts in time that either follow or lead the flow of the narrative.

Roslyn has created a world where sadness and humour have a strong bond. The tragedy of the ‘horrible coffee’ in the hospital waiting room threatens to upstage the fact that the mother is dying in the next room. Eggs, not yet embryos, are given names, and consequently adopt endearing personalities that never see the light of day. You could cry. You should cry. Yet you laugh instead. The intent behind the acting is faultless. The execution of these moments by Roslyn and Clare is quite extraordinary.

Edith Wharton planted the seed of this drama a century ago, but Roslyn has nurtured it and created a heart-warming and sometimes heart-breaking tale for today. One that resonates much more than the original. The focus may be on the things expected of women and what happens when they don’t go to plan (or rather the plan that society dictates), but it encompasses humanity as a whole and triggers wider reactions. By the same token, the intimacy of the Finborough’s stage is an apt setting for this play, but the story is in no way confined there. It follows you home, and brings a smile, and a tear, long after you’ve left the theatre.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Helen Murray

 


Pennyroyal

Finborough Theatre until 6th August

 

Recently reviewed at this venue:
The Sugar House | ★★★★ | November 2021
The Straw Chair | ★★★ | April 2022

 

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