King James
Detroit Public Theatre
3960 3rd Ave.
Detroit, Michigan
Running through June 7
I don’t know a damn thing about sports. Luckily, that isn’t necessary to enjoy “King James” at the Detroit Public Theatre.
“King James” is about two Cleveland Cavaliers fans, Matt and Shawn, who strike up an unexpected friendship over their love for basketball. The play is a comedy that spans just over a decade starting with Lebron James’s 2004 rookie season up to his 2016 NBA championship.
Despite the title, James never appears onstage, but his presence is felt. The fandom surrounding his career is the rollercoaster track on which Matt and Shawn’s friendship rides.
Sure, maybe the characters' reactions to James’s decision to leave the Cavs and eventually return would have hit harder for someone who was familiar with his arc. But what I do know is theatre — what makes a dynamic performance, and the actors ability to make me feel the emotions of their characters as if they were my own. Alexander Pobutsky (Matt) and Mateo Davis (Shawn) accomplished that.
The two had an excellent chemistry that excelled at showing the complicated nature of human relationships, or as Michigan author Angeline Boulley would say, how “it’s difficult loving imperfect people.” The nuance in their facial expressions, body language, and reactions to each other made them feel like real-life friends volleying off each other in real time. It’s like they were enjoying becoming Matt and Shawn as much as the audience enjoyed watching them. We see them at different stages of their life, and they all feel real and relatable.
Building any type of relationship, whether it’s platonic or not, involves two flawed humans coming together with everything they have ever experienced in their lives (good and bad) to collide in that moment. Relationships reveal the worst in us — the biases, stubbornness, entitlement, and selfishness that we all possess.
The play touches on many themes, including the question of how our inherent biases peak their heads out in interracial relationships. I wanted more from this focus, as there were opportunities for a deeper exploration, but it felt like a buildup that didn’t pay off, with the moment of impact hitting like a thud on the floor instead of a punch in the face. It doesn’t feel resolved by the end of the play, instead arising and fading as quickly as a popped balloon, as the friendship is confronted with a different challenge.
I’m used to seeing more impactful shows at DPT. “Here There Are Blueberries” was so poignant, it left me an emotional mess. “The Mountaintop” made me ponder my social responsibility. “Soft Target,” where DPT audiences last saw Pobutsky, addressed school shootings and their psychological trauma on young minds. Compared to these plays, “King James” didn’t leave me with any soul stirring things to grapple with. Still, this play is funny and engaging with an electrifying energy between the two actors that makes for a good, low stakes night out.
“King James” runs at the Detroit Public Theatre through Sunday, June 7. Post-show dialogues will take place immediately following the performance on Sunday, May 31 and Saturday, June 6 at 2 p.m. For more information and tickets, see detroitpublictheatre.org.
Published in conjunction with Detroit Metro Times.
