"Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within"
Plowshares Theatre Company
Marlene Boll Theatre at The Boll Family YMCA, Detroit
Through June 28, 2026
Fight or flight is the body’s physiological reaction to threat. It is also the hovering idea throughout Cándido Tirado’s play “Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within,” which is making its world premiere with Plowshares Theatre Company.
The show follows the life of the Puerto Rican, Afro-Latino baseball great and humanitarian as he navigates racism throughout his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. As he encounters the jarring segregation and prejudice on the mainland, he’s constantly faced with the decision to fight against it or to quit the sport altogether.
Directed by Gary Anderson and Tirado, the play stars Elvis Nolasco as the title character with Zahirah Muhammad, Chris Collins, Jacob Cullen, Falah Salaam Cannon, Tim Hackbarth and Augustus Williamson filling out the myriad remaining roles.
The play is framed mostly around Clemente’s attempt to reach 3,000 career hits. Act I had Clemente at bat, feeling the pressure of the potential milestone, with flashbacks to his early career and family life spliced between pitches, which was well-paced and moved the story along nicely.
Act II lost much of that at-bat framing and dragged, especially his romance with his wife. While Nolasco was convincing as the tormented, up-and-coming baseball star, his love story fell flat. At the beginning of Act II, after a lengthy pep talk from his parents, his mother commented how she’d noticed a new glow within him. We learn he had met his future wife that day – but that glow didn’t shine through and felt random.
When we meet his wife, we learn that he’d only glimpsed her before deciding she was the one and then harassed her on the street on her way to work to beg for a date. His pursuit came off entitled and whiny, lacking the charm needed to woo a perfect stranger. The same happened when he asked her father for permission to let him take her out, manipulating him with a sob story that didn’t feel convincing.
Later in Act II, Cullen gave a moving performance as a beggar sharing his heartbreaking backstory with Clemente. But the scene felt out of place and long and interrupted the flow of the story.
Parts of the play felt under-rehearsed. Williamson as Clemente’s father needed a script for the opening scenes of Act II. At times actors’ dialogue felt slow, as if they were struggling to remember their lines. There were also a few technical issues, an empty spotlight and projection screen pop-ups – like a dying computer battery notification – which were distracting.
Michael Collins’ set design framed the story well. The floor featured a baseball diamond, with dugouts behind. Above, the projection screen displayed historical photographs and newspaper clippings that both set the locations and reminded us the story is based on real history.
“Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within” is a fitting title for a baseball player who refused to cave under adversity, whose strength and perseverance shone to pave a path for others. The title is also fitting for the play itself: Roberto Clemente has a story worth telling, and the crux of it is there. With some editing and polishing, it could shine as well.
