Review: KING JAMES at Center Theatre Group

King James, the latest by Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rajiv Joseph, might be a tough sell for modern audiences. Center Theatre Group, who is co-premiering the piece at the Mark Taper Forum, is forced to bill reviews toting the story of a Black man and a white man's friendship as "UN-PREACHY" with a "HEALING RACIAL ENERGY" and "WELL-TIMED". The Chicago Tribune may have intended those words as high praise, but for many, they call to mind an apologist, revisionist poultice that seeks to heal wounds that are still very much in progress. When I raved to a friend about the production, they were surprised. "Isn't that just a 'let's all just get along' play?". It isn't. And CTG, as well as the Chicago Tribune would do well to reexamine the heart of the piece before pretending it is so.

The major events in the play, like in Greek tragedy, happen offstage and in the scene breaks. Deaths, business ventures, romances, and grad school acceptances are unearthed through casual conversation, thus it would be easy to feel that nothing actually happens throughout the course of the show- a blackout symbolizes a span of years and then we are forced to decipher what has happened through the following scene. However, Joseph has woven an intricate veil of social commentary which haunts the two characters and artfully comes into play as both situate within the awareness of the imbalances which divide them. Depending upon who you ask, King James might be a play about a Black man finding a way to advocate for himself, a white man figuring out how his access to wealth has affected him, or two friends with a singular shared interest and innumerable differences navigating the terrors of adulthood.

Matt, in a conventional sense, is our protagonist. Played by Chris Perfetti, he is lovably goofy and comfortable in his own gangly awkwardness, which wins our affection even when the character is too ignorant and self-important to be entirely worthy of our sympathies. The action (or lack thereof) unfolds on his turf, and the ball (lol) is usually in his court. We learn the specifics of his life as he is quick to vent his frustrations to a stranger looking to buy his season tickets to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and we are able to trace the fundamentals of his ideologies and priorities through the years.

Glenn Davis as Shawn is handed a difficult task; although he is granted a few soliloquies, his character seems intentionally to be guarded from Matt, and by proxy from the audience. While we are able to trace a lineage of Matt's ideologies, in the first act, Shawn serves more as a sounding board than a sparring partner. He rarely challenges Matt. When the unspoken tensions in the relationship finally come to a breaking point well into Act II, the buildup pays off tenfold. The air is sucked from the theatre and we feel we are in a vacuum. No one dare breathe lest the moment be ruptured, and a small spark ignite the cloud of fumes. Davis lends a theatricality to his performance that leaves an imbalance in the styles of the two characters, but if given the choice, I'd rather see Perfetti rise to Davis' sense of heightened action than see Davis downsize even a hair. He wins us while keeping his cards tight against his chest and turns this text about one man into a play about male friendship.

As Joseph's scripts go, this is not his greatest. The humor is shoddy at times and there seems to be a desperate struggle to remain current in language that doesn't pervade Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo or Guards at the Taj. However, his grasp of the shifting zeitgeist is astute, subtle, multi-faceted, and makes King James a play worthy of the contemporary regional theatre circuit. The revelations of information never land as cheap or ham-fisted (take note, Aaron Sorkin!). Kenny Leon has crafted an impactful production which harnesses every percussive moment within the text. Rhythmically, this will be a tough production for theatres to replicate and Leon's keen eye for dynamics between scene partners is to thank.

Sure! Maybe the play is "WELL-TIMED" as the Chicago Tribune heralded. But I also found it to be insightful, responsive to our reality, entirely plausible, entertaining, relatable, engaging, insightful, and many other words that imply it is a worthwhile work aside from its marketability in this moment.

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