Nothing but net. Pioneer Theatre Company’s Utah professional premiere production of King James by Rajiv Joseph is flawlessly executed. With Final Four-worthy performances by Eli Mayer as Matt and Khiry Walker as Shawn, the production, directed by Miriam Laube, is perfect for the Meldrum Theatre at the Einar Nielsen Field House, where plenty of Utah high school and University of Utah basketball milestones occurred between 1939 and 1969.
Covering 12 years, this 2022 two-hander about friends who idolize NBA superstar LeBron James nails its rhythm. A Cleveland Heights native, Joseph was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. He conceived King James from his own experiences as a devoted Cleveland sports fan and the conversations he often had with people who embodied the same passionate team allegiances, as we witness in the characters of Matt and Shawn.
The play’s timelapse coincides with when James was with the Cleveland Cavaliers in two separate stints (2003-2010 and 2014-2018). As basketball fans know, James played for the Miami Heat between his time in Cleveland. Joseph infuses the script with plenty of Northeast Ohio references. As a native Ohioan who had his own sports allegiances (not Cleveland), but who also knew many Cleveland fans who endured long droughts in hopes of living the thrills of sports championship seasons, the references in the dialogue hit with piercing clarity.
Photo: BW Productions.
The play captures the duality of the city’s persistent inferiority complex and its pride in being a resilient underdog. Matt and Shawn live in Cleveland Heights, where supporters of the public high school have always dreamed of besting rivals such as Cleveland St. Ignatius, the Jesuit high school athletic powerhouse which has won numerous state championships in football, basketball, soccer, rugby and golf. Meanwhile, for Cleveland’s pro teams in baseball, basketball and football, there have been many painfully familiar episodes of heartbreak. The legacy of LeBron James emerges as an important dramatic allegory in Joseph’s play.
Mayer and Walker really dig into the expansive emotional spectrum Joseph’s script has given them. The play opens with Matt, a wine bar employee, desperately looking to offload his Cavaliers season tickets because he needs the cash to offset an investment that soured. Shawn, an aspiring writer who is looking to pen screenplays, is willing to take them but at a much lower asking price. After a good bit of haggling, Matt begrudgingly relents. But, with James, the young rookie, stoking the hopes of capturing glory for the Cavaliers, Matt and Shawn quickly become good friends, dreaming that fans might finally experience the reward of celebrating a championship.
Joseph structures the play like a pro basketball game’s four quarters and it is in the third quarter when the play’s most dramatic tension is laid bare and threatens to derail the two men’s friendship. It is the period when James has returned to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Shawn is jubilant, but Matt is disgruntled. Matt says offhandedly that he would have been happier if James had “known his place” and had never left. Shawn asks the proper followup about what should James’ place have been. Matt’s horribly awkward response ignites a bitter argument and debate. The merciless verbal bullets being exchanged verge on rupturing their friendship forever. Meanwhile, as Shawn’s fortunes rise and Matt’s setbacks are burdensome, the epiphanies emerge.
One of the play’s most important lines follows shortly after: “I’m too old to be a sports fan. I think most grown men shouldn’t be sports fans.” Devoted fandom united Matt and Shawn as friends when they were both much younger, but now that they are considerably older than many professional athletes, they realize just how profoundly different their formative circumstances really are, as they figure out the true foundations of their friendship.
The subtle undercurrents of the period covered in the play’s third and fourth quarters matter a great deal. At the same time James had returned to the Cavaliers and vowed to deliver a championship season, many sports fans also were discussing the impact of NFL players who sat or knelt during the playing of the national anthem. This was most vividly displayed by Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback. In an interview with NFL media, Kaepernick explained his decision: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color…To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
Many mainstream media outlets framed the coverage on criticisms of Kaepernick’s protest as unpatriotic and anti-military. When James left the Cavaliers for the first time in 2010, he was labeled by the team owner as callous, heartless and cowardly, in an open letter which was set in Comic Sans typeface (a point alluded to in the play). Many angry fans also burned their James jerseys. James was 25 then, not unlike many other young Ohioans who were leaving a state that was past its best economic glory days. When James left the second time in 2018, after delivering the first championship in five decades, he left much more quietly, with a press statement of just one short sentence.
Actually, James didn’t entirely leave his home state behind, even the first time when he went to Miami. He donated money to renovate the Akron Boys & Girls Club and when he became a free agent just before his return to Cleveland, he wrote in Sports Illustrated, “I feel my calling here goes above basketball. I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously.” That has continued to this day, with his family foundation’s presence in Akron.
In that third quarter section of King James, Joseph illuminates a compelling reality. Fans feed their sentiments a great deal from the ponderings of sports journalists and podcast talking heads. The fact is that many sports journalists are woefully ill-prepared to critically examine, investigate and ponder race-related issues in their coverage.
When Matt spoke those words that threatened to ruin his friendship with Shawn, he probably had consumed a lot of media coverage that aggressively criticized James for ‘betraying’ Cleveland and which drew extraneous topics into their content. Shawn was not about to tolerate the sideshow of the vicious debate with Matt. Joseph’s play stands out, reminding us that the public forum which occupies so much attention from avid fans can have a lot of significant power in shaping narratives that leave the arena and touch on the relevant sociopolitical and sociocultural issues of the day.
Kudos to PTC for bringing a play with such a prominent sports profile into the theater. Of course, many theatergoers have little or no tolerance for sports on their radar and the same could be said of sports fans when it comes to theater or the arts in general. But well-crafted plays like King James rightly bring ourselves out of our respective silos to discover connections that can be as meaningful and elucidating as any other form of theatrical drama.
As noted last summer in a feature at The Utah Review, Karen Azenberg, PTC artistic director, said it was Joseph’s agent who reached out several years ago about the possibility of bringing King James to Salt Lake City. Knowing that a two-hander staged at the main Simmons Theatre could sap the dramatic intensity of the characters’ interactions, Azenberg waited until Meldrum was open to give the play its worthy Utah professional premiere. Happily, that has now transpired and the creative investment is eminently worth it. It is a perfect sidebar of entertainment in the midst of the current NCAA March Madness basketball tournament.
The production continues through April 4. For tickets and more information, see the Pioneer Theatre Company website.