Two men bond over basketball, more specifically over LeBron James. Clips are shown from different moments in the power forward’s life as he thrills Cleveland fans by leading the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals and breaks their hearts a few years later when he leaves for Miami.
But what Pulitzer finalist for Drama playwright Rajiv Joseph (Gruesome Playground Injuries, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), wrote isn’t really a play about sports, no matter its title: King James. Instead it’s a recognition of how men often can’t get to a point directly with each other — not when they talk about feelings — and need some other excuse to do deep dives with another person.
Actor/author/director Philip Kershaw says he jumped at the chance to direct this play now making its regional premiere at Rec Room Arts being a longtime admirer of Joseph’s work. That and next to theater, he’s a huge fan of basketball. “Outside of theater, basketball is probably the most constant and important thing and very rarely do those two worlds get to intersect.”
The friendship between Matt (Blake Weir) and Shawn (Antonio Lasanta) covers the years from 2004 to 2016, Kershaw says. The play has just these two actors and runs 90 minutes without intermission. As far as casting went, Kershaw says ” I needed two people who could go through a range of emotions and believably and also do both the dramatic moments and the comedic moments with just as much talent. I wanted to see if these folks could be both funny and serious and hold the space.
“The fun thing about doing a two-hander show is that nobody else is coming in to save the day so you got to put two people up there who can work together and carry a really heavy load.”
If you are going to pick a specific basketball player for a story about friends through the years, LeBron James is almost perfect, Kershaw says. For one thing, he has had an extraordinarily long career. The play is based in Cleveland, which is where playwright Joseph is from. And LeBron cast such a large presence over the entire industry. “He’s almost like a mythological figure.
“The way that the play brilliantly functions is that we get the these flashpoints of LeBron’s storied career through the lens of these two friends and their friendship. How it starts, how it maintains over the years. LaBron’s been playing for two thirds of my life,” he said laughing.
“There’s also something really funny and insightful about the nature of male friendships in the sense that we don’t always talk about ‘the thing, the actual thing.’ We kind of talk about it through the lens of sports. And talk around it.”.
Kershaw did some theater in elementary school but dismisses that. In high school students had to have an extracurricular and he got assigned to a stage crew for Anything Goes. Standing backstage when the production went on, he decided he could do that, he wanted to be on stage and began acting.
But when he went to college at the University of Maryland where he was a history major. And while he loves history, and still loves it, he decided to get involved in theater as well, ending up as a double major. From there he went on to grad school at University of Houston’s theater program. His original plan was to be in Houston for two years but then the pandemic hit.
Which actually turned out to have a silver lining, as stalled in place, he met a number of different theater people, made connections and was able to flourish in his chosen profession.
“This show really is about these two gentlemen’s friendship. The basketball is, of course, mentioned and referred to but it’s not the central drive of the show. We’re viewing these two over the length of time of their friendship, through the prism of notable moments. But I think the playwright, our actors and amazing design team do a good job of just dropping you into this moment.
“So no, you don’t need to be watching the NBA on TNT every Thursday like I do to appreciate this play.”
Performances are scheduled for February 24 through March 16 (previews February 22 and 23) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays at Rec Room, 100 Jackson, Suite 130C. For more information, visit recroomarts.org. $5-$40.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
