What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1203486
LARA JO HIGHTOWER NWA Democrat-Gazette O n its face, Marco Ramirez's play "The Royale" — opening this week for a six-week run at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville — is about the sport of boxing. The plot takes its inspiration from the life of Jack Johnson, the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion, though it's not a direct lift of his life story. Ramirez has said in interviews he wanted to retain "poetic license" when telling the story of the fictional Jay Jackson — a boxer "so good at the sport, they call him 'The Sport,'" says one character in the play. "What's great about this play is that people come in and think they're going to see boxing matches — actual punching — but then they see that it's so stylized," says the show's director, Dexter Singleton, describing the unique staging device Ramirez uses to convey the boxing matches. Without ruining the effect, suffice it to say that a glove never makes impact with flesh, but the matches are still heart- poundingly vivid. "It really captures the rhythm of boxing, the musicality of boxing, but also the psychological side of what's going on inside a fighter's head when they're engaging in a match," Singleton goes on. When it comes to plays about sports, "it's really difficult to find that mix of theatricality that engages the sports fan as well as the non-sports fan, and I really think T2 uses 'The Royale' to deliver knock-out message JANUARY 26-FEBRUARY 1, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 3 FAQ 'The Royale' WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Wednes- day-Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, through Feb. 16 WHERE — TheatreSquared, 477 W. Spring St., Fayetteville COST — $10-$55 INFO — 777-7477 COVER STORY See Royale Page 4 Troy Wallace (left) and Shon Middlebrooks star in TheatreSquared's production of "The Royale," opening this week and running through Feb. 16. (Photo by Wesley Hitt)