Fighter - A Punch of Feminism with a Hit of Humour

Boxing has never been a sport which appealed much to me. I always thought it was too violent and couldn’t understand the joys of throwing punches at other people. However when I learned about a show surrounding the idea of female boxing and the stigma that comes with it, I knew I had to go and see what it was all about. I think it’s safe to say that Fighter has really helped me to change my perspective on the art of boxing.

Fighter is story of a single mum, Lee, who wants to learn to box in her local gym and has to fight allsorts of social, mental and physical battles and in order to make that happen. With a large cast of young boxers exercising throughout the play, the audience become fully immersed into the world of boxing.

Libby Liburd, both writer of Fighter, as well as playing Lee, absolutely shines in this production. From the moment she steps onstage her wit and charisma carries through and really allows the audience to connect with Lee as a character. The monologue she gave on talking to her son about boxing was one of the most heartbreaking and gut wrenching moments of the entire piece. Liburd has the ability to switch from hilarious to heartbreaking within seconds whilst not losing her sense of reality or the core performance of her character at all. And given that she had written the excellent book herself, she performed her lines as naturally as you would expect from any author. It was a true pleasure to see her perform. She breathes the life and soul into this production.

The whole company gave beautiful performances throughout the show. The characters of Tommy (David Schaal) and Alison (Cathy Tyson) had such natural and real chemistry as a couple which was really lovely and refreshing to see. Likewise, all of the young people boxing in the ensemble were full of energy throughout the whole piece. I was tired just watching them!

The set design (Helena Goldberg) of the show was an interesting element. It was quite minimalist, with the focus being on the large boxing ring in the centre of the stage. However, bar a few flags and signs, there was very little else in the ways of decor. Although I understand this wasn't an important element to this production, it would have been nice to see what they would have done with a more elaborate set.

One thing which I found very distracting throughout the show was the two large tapestry-like posters which hung from each side of the back wall of the stage. Text was projected onto this screens during scene transitions for exposition and clarity- things such as “The Next Day”. Whilst it is necessary to communicate this to the audience, I would have preferred it to be in a way which wouldn’t break the reality of the piece - such as having the characters clarify that it is the next day in conversation instead? However what frustrated me most with these projections was when the news report was projected onto them towards the end of the play. The two flags were long in length and slim in width, so couldn’t have a full landscape film projected onto them indidividually. Instead they split the image between the two flags, which had a fair distance between them. This again broke the reality of the piece and distracted me greatly as I found it really frustrating that the image couldn’t be viewed properly in its entirety. However I understand that this problem is probably unique to me and wouldn’t affect the experience for a large portion of the audience.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed fighter. It’s success can all be found in this individual performances. It’s humanity, and feminist perspective on such a male-dominated sport was fascinating to watch and learn about.

I hope it will return in the future with a longer run so that young girls and women get to experience the true power of when you don’t take no for an answer.

5 Star Rating: **** Four Stars

To See or Not To See: To See!!

Images provides courtesy of Alex Brenner.