Iron Age Theatre
&
The Montgomery County Cultural Center
Present

Directed and Designed by
Randall Wise & John Doyle
October 25 - November 18, 2001
Curtain 8pm
Matinees 2pm Sundays- October 28 & November 4 and 11

Featuring: Doug Barnes as Crixus Robert Anu as Shadow Jack Michael Way as Cayman Tiffany Joyner as Kazarah Fabrizio Ruta as The Hurricane Nakia Dillard as Bigelow Chuck Wilson as Meadows Steve McLean as Stolkes

Music by Chris Hansen
Stage Combat Choreography by Payson Burt

Read Bios of the cast of the production

in the Centre Theater
at the Montgomery County Cultural Center
208 Dekalb Street, Norristown 19401

(610) 279-1013

Click here for more information about the play
Meet Payson Burt, Our Fight Coreographer

A taut, personal drama surrounded by the sometimes impersonal world of boxing; until revenge forces it to be very personal.
During the Reconstruction, upon the still smoldering ground ravaged by the Civil War stands Crixus, fabled survivor of countless boxing matches-to-the-death during slavery. Now middle age and a newly freed man, Crixus works as a store clerk in a small general store in Maryland, but he faces an uncertain future, unprepared for a life of freedom and haunted by restless phantoms of his past. Crixus desires only to provide as best he can for his young wife Kazarah who is close to delivering their first child. Crixus' inarticulateness concerning his feelings towards Kazarah threatens to drive her into the arms of Cayman, a dashing immigrant Jamaican Boxer, who is younger and more prosperous. Cayman is on the eve of challenging John "the Hurricane" Blaine to a bare-knuckle boxing match. "The Hurricane" is an ex-confederate soldier who has sworn to retrace the paths of famous battles of the Civil War fighting against opponents at the battle sites themselves. Crixus sells himself for money to challenge "the Hurricane" to a fight at Antietam with everything at stake.
Powerfully triumphant and tragic, the play challenges the myths of America as these "Natural Men," the titans of their time, battle for honor and justice.

Dramaturgical Links

American Bareknuckle Champion Boxers Timeline of Boxing History Some Bareknuckle Boxing Information A History of Bareknuckle Boxing Bareknuckle Boxing in the Civil War Bareknuckle Boxing and Religion Sullivan-Kilrain Fight Collection Primary Source Material Slavery and the Journey to Freedom An African American Pamphlet Collection Historical Documents about Slavery and the Bible African American Soldiers in the Civil War African American History and the Reconstruction The Reconstruction and its Aftermath Black Voices and the Reconstruction Antietam Images Detailed History of the Battle of Antietam The Civil War Courier Camp Chase Gazette: The Voice of Civil War Reenacting Production Information Payson Burt on Fight Choreography www.4lafa.org or The Los Angeles Fight Academy

Keith Glover Information
Keith Glover Works to Change Black Theater
Black Playwrights in a White World
Keith Glover Discusses Ideas of August Wilson

Tickets $16

REVIEWS

With this set-up, you know what the play will build to: The climactic fight is a good one. As devised by fight choreographer Payson Burt, it is exciting, intensely physical, and convincingly brutal.
There is an undeniable vitality to the acting and the production, mounted by directors John Doyle and Randall Wise. Although some of the performances could be more polished, Glover's vividly written characters are colorfully portrayed.
The force of the anger and wounded pride that Doug Barnes brings to the defiant Crixus drives the play, and Robert Anu's authoritative portrayal of his friend, the wily Shadow Jack, holds attention whenever he is on stage. Tiffany Joyner is a pleasant presence as Crixus' young, pregnant wife; and Michael Way's light, comic take on the happy-go-lucky Cayman, a prizefighter from Africa, contrasts nicely with Barnes' intensity.
Although the whites in the play are racists who despise blacks even as they exploit them, Glover does give the Hurricane the redeeming quality of being a professional fighter who respects Crixus as an opponent. This allows Fabrizio Ruta to turn the Hurricane into a rounded character and adds a mano á mano dimension to their black-versus-white battle.
The directors reinforce the play's didactic tone with a set decorated at the rear with bullet-ridden Confederate banners, a whipping post, and festoons of slave chains that have nothing to do with the story. Could this be bare-knuckle symbolism?
Douglas Keating
The Philadelphia Inquirer

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