Park theatre, London
The real-life story of Frankie Lucas, a fighter spurned by Britain’s boxing establishment, is wrenchingly sad but loses power in this telling
Frankie Lucas might not be a household name as a boxer but he could have been a contender for it. A Windrush-era child from St Vincent, he joined his north London boxing club at nine, showing clear talent. He went on to win a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games, against the odds, before tragic derailment into bad mental health.
This production, written by Lisa Lintott, charts his rise and fall but is so much in thrall to biographical chronology and blow-by-blow fight reports that the drama fails to come to life. We hear from his girlfriend, Gene (Llewella Gideon), and son, Michael (Daniel Francis-Swaby), but they are narrators offering summaries rather than roundly drawn characters with inner worlds. We never access the emotional world of Lucas (Jazz Lintott, the writer’s son) either.
At Park theatre, London, until 30 November