White Feather Boxer is an interesting and intimate little piece. A single act play it’s the story of an old boxing coach, Jimmy, taking on a girl, Jo, as his apprentice. As the training proceeds, Jimmy reflects on the news of Muhammed Ali’s refusal to serve in Vietnam in the light of his own conscience objection in WWI, whilst Jo must face more contemporary struggles in her home life. It is an effective and sincere play that manages a lot with a minimalist set up.
It did take some time to adjust to Julia Masli’s accent as Jo. The character is from a Polish family but has grown up surrounded by cockneys so the bizarre composite accent makes sense in context – but if you did not know this going in, you may well suffer from a sense of dislocation and confusion until that detail is clarified, as I did. Once on board with that, Masli offers a very interesting performance physically. Jo is very cagey and this is made very clear with her movement and demeanour: all stiffness followed by sharp movements.
White Feather Boxer is of course only a two piece and Masli is sharing the stage with Chris Barnes as Jimmy. Barnes is quick to build a rapport with the audience. You could easily fall into stereotype with the Million Dollar Baby/Karate Kid plot, with Jimmy played as a by turns unapproachable and then avuncular mentor, but director and writer Siobhán Nicholas has realised the merit of a simpler approach. Jimmy is a kindly ethical man with a passion for boxing and a bit of emotional baggage. Barnes is certainly up to the task of making this resonate with the audience.
I have some reservations about the very unpretentious interpersonal drama moving to more expositional soliloquies. When either Jo or Jimmy speak of or reenact the traumas they are dealing with, I did become much more aware of the artifice of the play than at any other time in the drama. It by no means undermines the play to any significant degree, but the strength lies in the more conversational sections.
I don’t think White Feather Boxer is saying anything particularly revelatory but its points are honest and delivered well. Nor is there a need for every good play to deliver a complex exegesis on life the universe and everything. I heartily recommend it as an intimate little drama reflecting on issues of pacifism and friendship. ★★★★☆ Fenton Coulthurst at the BT Studio in Oxford on 8th September 2017
