Finally, theater for sports fans.
City Theatre is wrapping up their 50th anniversary season with this gripping two-man play that explores the unique loyalty of hometown sports fans — and the loyalty of friendships that spring from that fanaticism.
“King James” has a structure reminiscent of a platonic version of 2000 film “Love and Basketball,” separated into four quarters (like a hoops game) with time jumps in between. The two-hour, two-act play strides from 2004 to 2010 to 2014 to 2016, following the career of debatable basketball GOAT LeBron James from his rookie season to The Decision to his return to Cleveland and, finally, to the 2016 NBA Championship.
The play takes place in Cleveland, Ohio, the city with the closest NBA team to James’ hometown of Akron and the city where he began his career. In 2004, 21-year-olds Matt (Michael Patrick Trimm) and Shawn (Robert Hunter) meet when Shawn is trying to buy the remainder of Matt’s season tickets for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After the two haggle over the price and discuss their lifelong Cavs fan bona fides, Shawn buys the tickets — and decides to take Matt to the games with him, sparking a tumultuous friendship that, at times, mirrors the tumultuous friendship between Cavs fans and LeBron James. The two men navigate family, career and social issues over the ensuing 12 years.
Hunter and Trimm make an absolute dream team. While their interplay scores plenty of laughs from the audience, there’s also a palpable undercurrent of unspoken tension between the two at times that feels so familiar to real, complicated, close adult friendships.
In Matt, Trimm embodies many of the worst impulses of sports fans; he can be a little spiteful, a little prideful, a little gatekeeping. But those foibles are authentic in his performance and recognizable to anyone who is — or loves — a lifelong fan. Trimm’s likeability is a good counterbalance, and he’s great at portraying the layers of Matt’s complicated feelings throughout the play.
Hunter gets some of the friendship’s most explosive moments, but he’s also able to play it softer just as well. While Trimm often puts up a barrier of bravado to hide Matt’s vulnerable feelings, Hunter’s Shawn is more raw, both in his joy and in his frustration.
This is a play that does an extraordinary job of portraying four slices of life. Plays that use this format often contain plenty of stilted dialogue to provide exposition for the audience, but playwright Rajiv Joseph skillfully avoided that pitfall. The conversations between Shawn and Matt feel completely natural while still giving context — for example, after a time jump, year-old events that would’ve been earth-shaking at the time are discussed with a casualness that only time can provide.
The other way that place-setting is so effective here can be attributed to terrific direction and an on-the-ball creative team, especially projection designer Jasmine A. Golphin. Both the show’s program and the production itself give little current events montages on a big screen above the stage during time shifts. Part of that context, as the action moves into the mid-2010s, is the rise of Black Lives Matter. The movement has a tragic potency in Cleveland, with the 2014 killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by police.
With Shawn being Black and Matt being white, this tension does eventually rise in their friendship. Hunter and Trimm are both particularly fantastic in that scene.
This is the final City Theatre production directed by Monteze Freeland during his tenure as co-artistic director before he makes his move to Alumni Theater Company. He made it a fitting finale, coaching the whole team of “King James” to a big win.
Scenic designer Tony Ferrieri put together two sets on a turntable, a wine bar that was used during Act One and an antiques store for Act Two. Both were appropriately dressed but also gave plenty of room — and excuses — for the characters to move around, an important asset for a play about sports.
Costume design from Jeffrey Van Curtain provided a useful shorthand for the rise and fall of the two characters’ fortunes throughout the play. And lighting and sound design (from Jakyung C. Seo and Howard Patterson, respectively) were especially fun during the final moments of the second act.
“King James” is a co-production with Cleveland Play House, giving it an even stronger sense of heart.
But in truth, the emotions invoked by this play could be brought out in any Pittsburgh sports fan: the nostalgia, the years of disappointment, the entanglement with personal relationships and, finally, the sweet taste of victory.
“King James” will run through May 11 at City Theatre on the South Side. Learn more and get tickets at citytheatrecompany.org.