BALLS


Having recently seen the film “Battle of the Sexes,” about the famous 1973 power tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, I wondered how “Balls” would handle the same subject in the confines of a theater. The play, presented by the One Year Lease Theater Company and Stages Repertory Theatre, has been written by Kevin Armento and Bryony Lavery, with direction by Ianthe Demos and Nick Flint, and movement direction by Natalie Lamonte.

At first attention must be paid to the design of slices of a tennis court by Kristen Robinson, and the sound design by Brendan Aanes, the latter presumably responsible for the perfectly timed sounds of imaginary balls being bounced on the court in preparation for serves by King and Riggs, and the equally perfect smashing sounds each time a racquet hits an imaginary ball.

A big salute is due the technical team, although for a while I was more caught up in the ambience, including the busy scoreboard, than the story. I was beginning to worry about the story being overwhelmed by the production values. However, as the play progressed in its 85 intermission-less minutes, the meaning of it all fell into shape.

The issue of male chauvinism on the part of Riggs, out to prove that he could beat any women, and King aiming to show that she could be a superior player (as she did in the well-known outcome), shone through the stage magic, maybe even partly because of it.

Speeches between the action—the excellent Ellen Tamaki as King and Donald Corren as Riggs get a mighty physical workout dashing about the movable court—tell us the personal stories. King is married to Larry (Danté Jeanfelix) but has a female lover, Marilyn, provocatively played by the striking Zakiya Iman Markland, a relationship that ends in legal rancor and tragedy.

The play’s dialogue is tied to the history of women’s rights, past and present. I could have done without the secondary story of a ball boy (Alex J. Gould) and a ball girl (Elisha Mudly) falling in love, bickering, marrying, separating, all with chatter about the roles of men and women in a relationship. In addition, the crassness of the two spectators depicted (Danny Bernardy and Christina Pitter) and carrying some of the commentary was annoying.

A major gripe: Why are the two ball-boy clowns (Richard Saudek and Olivia McGiff), who have the task of miming as they go about their duties, acting with kooky body movements and air-headed grimaces, as if they were escapees from a mental institution? Question for the directors: What is the point?

Such negatives aside, overall “Balls” delivers on its recapitulation of the King-Riggs battle for supremacy, and its meaning in the context of the fight for women’s rights against male attitudes of superiority. The play is mostly involving visually, and much of the main dialogue is meaningful. Now if the tennis court lesson brought to the fore in the theater can only be transferred to a more general extent into the contemporary world, the effect would be welcome. At the 59E59 Theaters. Phone: 212-753-5959. Reviewed January 25, 2018.




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