No one throws a real punch in The Royale, yet the fights hit harder than most staged brawls in recent memory. Writers Theatre in Glencoe is presenting Marco Ramirez's fictionalized drama inspired by boxer Jack Johnson, who in 1908 became the first Black man to win the world heavyweight title, and the production represents its boxing matches through stomping, clapping and movement rather than physical contact.
The play, directed by Tyrone Phillips, imagines a Black boxer named Jay who has won his last seventy-six fights and has his sights set on becoming heavyweight champion, according to Writers Theatre. La'Tevin Alexander plays Jay Jackson, the character who stands in for Johnson, as reported by Chicago Sun-Times. The cast also includes Scott Aiello, Ajax Dontavius, James Vincent Meredith and AnJi White, per the seed facts behind this report.
Johnson's real history runs through Chicago. He lived and owned businesses in the city's Bronzeville neighborhood before eventually fleeing the country, according to the Chicago Tribune. He made Chicago his home, bought his mother a house there, and owned a restaurant on the city's South Side. He is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Uptown, the paper notes.
A Fight Staged Without a Single Blow
Writers Theatre describes the production as a play in six rounds, and the staging leans into that structure rather than away from it. The fights are represented without physical contact, with stomping and clapping used to represent the blows, the Chicago paper's review explains. Ramirez's script traces events leading up to Johnson's 1910 bout with retired heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries, a fight the Tribune's review frames as the dramatic backbone of the piece.
Reviewers have not agreed on how long the production runs. The Tribune calls it a taut 80-minute play, the Sun-Times describes it as a svelte 85 minutes, and Writers Theatre's own event page references a full 90 minutes. The discrepancy remains unresolved across the available accounts.
Why the Story Still Lands a Century Later
Johnson was regarded as a towering hero by some and a dangerous threat by others during the Jim Crow era, according to the facts behind this report, and that tension sits at the center of Ramirez's script. A review from Newcity Stage frames the play's focus plainly, describing the relationship between Black athletes and white spectators as no less problematic a century later than it was in Johnson's time.
Director Tyrone Phillips has described The Royale as a boxing ballet with no punches landed in the script, and he has said Johnson fought political battles and societal traumas as well as boxing opponents, according to the facts behind this report. Phillips has also said that Johnson's legacy is that excellence can come at a cost and that the boxer changed people's perspectives. The historic royales that gave the play its title featured Black boxers fighting to the finish until one man remained standing, a brutal spectacle Ramirez reworks into theater rather than recreates onstage.
Critics Call It a Knockout
The reviews gathered so far have been enthusiastic. The Sun-Times called the staging an elegant, beautifully acted revival, while the Chicago Reader declared the production a total TKO. The Tribune's critic noted having first reviewed the play back in 2015, in a pre-New York production by American Theater Company starring Jerod Haynes, while the Sun-Times traced the script's own history further back, noting it was first produced in 2013 and revised for its Chicago debut in 2015.
Beyond the stage, Johnson's legal history has drawn its own official recognition. A White House statement said President Donald J. Trump issued a posthumous full pardon to John Arthur Jack Johnson for a Mann Act conviction, though the statement does not detail the underlying case further.
The Royale runs at Writers Theatre, located in Glencoe, through November 29, giving North Shore audiences a few remaining weeks to see a production that turns one of boxing's most consequential and painful chapters into a story told almost entirely without contact.
