Alberta Theatre Projects continues their winning season with a sharp, funny, and engaging co-production with Theatre Aquarius of King James by Rajiv Joseph. Smartly directed by Haysam Kadri and starring the talented Michael Blake as Shawn and Devin Mackinnon as Matt the play focuses on the friendship between two men who bond over their love of basketball, superstar athlete LeBron James, and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Adding to this entertaining production is Multi-Disciplinary artist and DJ Diana Reyes, better known as Fly Lady Di, whose sound mix uses original sports clips and soundbites of LeBron James to bridge scenes and add a feeling of a live sporting event to the evening.

The story of the play unfolds over the course of twelve years and begins in 2004 when LeBron James is the number one draft pick in the NBA, and he plays his rookie season as a Cavalier. Matt, who is a true fan, has had seasons tickets to the Cavaliers since he was six years of age. His fondest memories of childhood are going to the games with his father. Unfortunately, he’s now run into some financial difficulties and he’s trying to sell his father’s remaining season tickets to raise some money so he can pay off some debts he’s accumulated through a failed business venture.

Enter Shawn an equally dedicated Cavalier fan whose childhood also revolved around his love for the Cavaliers, but his family never had the money to afford tickets to a game. Now having had an unexpected bit of good fortune he wants to fulfill his lifelong dream of going to the games and cheering on his team. A mutual acquaintance brings Matt and Shawn together and there’s an immediate bond between the two as they start to share their views and opinions about LeBron and the Cavaliers and what an impact the team had on them as they grew up in Cleveland.

There’s a friendly and teasing banter between the two right from the very start as they haggle about the price of the tickets, and they get to know each other. Of course, there’s no big secret about where this is heading. Matt has tickets. Shawn wants tickets. There are two tickets for each game. That could only mean one thing – this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

If you’re a sports fan, then you know that following your team through the seasons year after year as they battle their way to the championship is a journey filled with euphoric moments of victory and crushing moments of defeat. It’s also a lot of fun to share that journey with fellow fans and in particular with friends who share your passion for the game. The good news is you don’t have to be a sports fan to enjoy King James. Sports acts as a backdrop with the career of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers providing the historical context of the play.

Playwright Rajiv Joseph when talking about the play said, “In this country, at least, there’s sometimes this notion that some men are only able to express their emotions when they’re talking about sports, and I think that’s what this play is about. It’s about these two individuals – these two young men – who are friends, who have a hard time actually telling each other what’s on their mind, and their only entry point into that sort of deeper emotional exchange is through talking about sports – talking about LeBron – talking about Michael Jordan.”

In addition to an outstanding and talented cast director Haysam Kadri has assembled a first-rate design team composed of set and costume designer Brian Dudkiewicz, lighting designer Louise Guinand, and sound designer Maddie Bautista.

The play takes place in two locations. In act one we find ourselves in La Cave du Vin, a wine bar on the east side of Cleveland where Matt works as a bartender. The bar is partially underground was formally a church and features stained glass windows to bring natural light into the place.

In act two the action shifts to Armand’s Upholstery and Used Furniture Store. It’s one of those old curiosity shops filled with everything from stuffed Armadillos to one of those large globe bars that you can open up and store bottles of whisky in.

Armand’s is the family business where Matt’s parents earned a living and funny enough while Matt tends to take it for granted and not think of it as being anything particularly special Shawn loves the place.

It’s the real and heartfelt performances of Michael Blake as Shawn and Devin Mackinnon as Matt that makes the play such fun to watch because we can see these two guys being friends. They click. They find in each other someone to share the journey. And they do such a convincing job of being friends that when Matt and Shawn’s friendships runs into a crisis, we feel upset.

Why? Because nobody likes to see their friends fight. Come on guys. Grow up. All we want is for Matt and Shawn to think big picture and not get caught up in saying and doing hurtful things that they’ll end up regretting later. But rest assured while there are certainly a few dramatic turns and twists in the play much of the story is filled with good humour and big laughs and a satisfying and hopeful ending.  

King James is a play about friendship. How it begins. How it flourishes. How it can go sideways. And how it can be restored and renewed. As an audience what we’re really experiencing is an emotional journey for two people with a fondness for the game and a love for each other that they find difficult to express.

The play ends when Shawn and Matt are still relatively young. They’re only 33 years of age. The stories not over. I want to know what happens to these characters as they get older and enter middle age. I want to hang out with these two and listen in on their conversations about sports and life and learn about their dreams and hopes and disappointments. I want to know what kind of a person Shawn is at 40 or Matt is at 60 and most of all I want to follow them on their journey because I would love to think that these two share a lifelong friendship that makes both of their lives richer and more rewarding.

King James by Rajiv Joseph is the third play in the 50^th Anniversary Season of Alberta Theatre Projects and offers audiences a touching and humourous exploration of friendships that celebrates the unifying power of sports.

Epilogue – March 17, 2025 – St. Patrick’s Day

There was more I wanted to say about King James in my original blog post, but I didn’t say it because at the time I couldn’t find the words I wanted to use. Or I couldn’t find a concise way to talk about the things I wanted to talk about. And I still haven’t. But I was really excited to see King James because the play offers such a rich opportunity for discussing so many different things about life.

King James allows us to explore our feelings and thoughts about sports and our feelings and thoughts about friendship and our feelings and thoughts about how theatre and sports are cousins because they both focus on the human experience and are live visceral events. And so, I thought I’d publish my original blog and then return to it after the run and explore a few more aspects about the play – free now from having to avoid spoilers. So, fair warning. If you do read on, then I may mention things about the play that if you haven’t seen it will definitely be spoilers.

So, first what are we to make of professional sports? Back a long time ago when towns would participate in sporting events you really had teams made up of people who lived and worked in that city or that town. It was your home. And so, when you went to cheer on the hometown team you were really cheering on the hometown team.

Members of the team were actually your friends, neighbours, coworkers and family. Of course, some towns would hire a ringer. A player of greater physical ability that the locals could pass off as one of their own. This would be someone who for a fee would play on your team and tip the scales. And it was considered bad form to do such things.

Jump ahead to today and I’d argue that the hometown team is now almost entirely composed of what would have been described as ringers and only very rarely does a team include a hometown boy. So, what is it we are cheering for if we’re no longer cheering for the real hometown team? What is it we’re identifying with when we go to watch a team play because the players are paid employees. Their loyalty is bought and sold. They can and do play for different teams during their career. So, why when they play for our team do we cheer them on. Why do we care about the outcome of the game when the people playing often have no real connection to where we live other than a contract.

I think it’s part of our tribal behaviour. I think we naturally gravitate towards groups that represent our thoughts, ambitions, hopes, and feelings even if that group is an artificial creation. I think that’s because a lot of our identity comes from the groups each of us associates and identifies with. That includes the sports teams we cheer for as well as the political party we support, our religious identity, whether or not we’re vegetarian or – like the Dude in The Big Lebowski – we live to bowl.

And as is true of all things human there’s a good side to our tribal behaviour and an evil side to our tribal behaviour. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of society. I would also argue that we’ve been seeing a lot more of Mr. Hyde on the world stage of late than the kindly Dr. Jekyll.

The bad side I’m not going to dwell on. I’m just going to mention it. On the bad side we see the violent hateful and competitive side of humans who can take things too far in sports. I mean soccer riots and the violence against fans of an opposing team – what does that tell us about humans? It’s a tin cup for Christ’s sake. At one time it did not exist. At some point in the future it won’t exist. Yeah, have fun and cheer on your team but what’s with the violence and hate and the riots after your team wins the championship. They won. Why are you burning cars. Those are disturbing outcomes.

And then there’s the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment that reveals a lot about group dynamics and our willingness to adopt the beliefs and behaviours of particular groups and ways of thinking. Ever heard of that one? That was a psychological experiment where participants in the study either became guards or prisoners. Let’s just say some people took the experiment a little too far. You should look it up. It’s part of that ugly side.

On the good side, sports give us an opportunity to celebrate the human spirit and to marvel at the amazing physical abilities of elite athletes like LeBron James, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods. And LeBron James, from what I can tell, is not just an exceptional athlete but is also an exceptional person whose success on the basketball court has been the result of a life dedicated to developing the natural gifts he was born with.

Here is a man who is arguably the best basketball player of all time, having racked up an impressive number of records and stats, including being the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with, as of March 17, 2025, 41,924 points. The next closest to LeBron is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who has 38,387 career points and has been retired since 1989. LeBron who just turned forty has said he has a few more years of peak performance in him before he plans on retiring so that number is sure to increase.

LeBron has won 4 NBA championships, including back-to-back wins with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013, and with the Cavaliers in 2016, and with the Lakers in 2020. He also has three Olympic Gold medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics, and the 2024 Paris Olympics, and an Olympic Silver medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics. You do not obtain that level of success on talent alone. Achieving that level of success demands a level of commitment that few of us would be willing or able to match. And while the stats are a numerical record of his achievements, the real beauty of sport is to see him live in action. To be at the game. To witness firsthand his electrifying performance, his precision and his power and to marvel at his command of the sport.

And isn’t that also true of great actors. Do we not go to see them because they bring something extra to their performance? They reach deeper than other actors. They somehow are able to convey something more. And just like in sports the real joy of theatre is seeing a live performance. To be at the theatre and to witness firsthand what a great actor brings to the their performance and how they command the stage.

Both theater and sport can be thrilling. Isn’t that why we go to the game? For the thrills. Isn’t that the same reason we go to the theatre? We go to be thrilled. We go to be entertained. We go to experience some emotion and to make our life more fun and meaningful. We go to both the theatre and to sport to share the experience. Yes, with an audience but more importantly with the person we’re going with. When we go to the theatre that play becomes a part of our history, and a memory that we can relive and enjoy when we get together with the family or friends with whom we shared the original experience.

And while sport and fandom are definitely a part of King James the play is really about friendship and the importance of friendship in our lives. The play is divided into four scenes and this choice was made in order to duplicate the structure of a basketball game which is also divided into four quarters. Does that really work? I don’t know. Two acts four scenes – I suppose. But I don’t honestly feel it matters much. That might be the intention but for me I just like spending time with Shawn and Matt as they hang out together. There could have been a couple more scenes and that would have been fine with me.

Scene Two of Act I coincides with LeBron James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and going to play for the Miami Heat and it’s also when Shawn gets an opportunity to go to New York to pursue his dream of being a writer. That means he won’t be going to the games anymore. He’s moving on. And interestingly while Shawn feels betrayed by Lebron leaving and is even ready to burn his LeBron Jersey he’s ready to move on which means just like LeBron leaving his team Shawn is leaving his friend Matt. Matt doesn’t really say so but that feels like a bit of a betrayal. And even when we wish our friends well, we can often have mixed feelings about the choices our friends make that take them away from us. Distance is a hard thing to overcome. Even in todays connected world. Proximity plays a big role in our lives. And when you put physical distance between people over time the bonds of friendship can weaken because that distance usually results in less frequent opportunities to get together and build new memories.

In scene one of the second act there is an actual crisis in the friendship that plays out with the two friends becoming estranged from each other which means the final scene of the play is an attempt to repair and renew the damaged friendship. And while I like to think of Shawn and Matt being friends for life, you never know. This might indeed be the end of their friendship because life and circumstances have taken them in different directions. Shawn lives in L.A. working as a television writer. Matt still lives in Clevland and has yet to have had much success with any of his business ventures. So, they no longer spend time together going to Cavalier games which was the foundation of their friendship and there is the possibility that their friendship might become nothing more than the annual birthday greeting on Facebook and occasionally getting together when they’re on vacation.

Or maybe not.

The final scene in the play takes place on June 22nd, 2016, a few days after the Cavaliers have won their very first NBA Championship. Game 7 was played in San Francisco and Shawn was at the game and when it came down to the final seconds, he realized that the person he wanted beside him and to share that moment with was his friend Matt. But Matt wasn’t there. He should have been. And so, Shawn drives from San Francisco all the way to Cincinnati to see his friend Matt and to try and reconnect and hopefully begin again.

And I think they will. That’s the sentimental hopeful side of me.

I do think this friendship will last and I’d love to see the story continue as I mentioned earlier in my blog. I’d love to see another play or two that follows these two as they live their lives and get together when they can to catch up and reconnect. And maybe they’ll finally be able to move beyond their mutual love of basketball to being able to talk about other things going on in their lives in a deeper way.

We need our friends to keep us real. To help us process life. To explore options. To celebrate the big wins and the tragic defeats.

Life is hard. It’s even harder without friends.

And King James is really a celebration of friendship. And while theatre opens doors to empathy and understanding so too do things like our shared love of sport and our shared passion for the game whether that game happens to be basketball or hockey or football.

And so, since today is March 17th – St. Patrick’s Day – it feels to me like it would be appropriate to end this updated blog with an Irish toast that celebrates friendship. A final thought to cap off these rambling thoughts. A bit of concise Irish Wisdom instead of the long-winded ponderings of a guy trying to put into words what can so easily be said and has been said for generations.

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“There are good ships and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are friendships and may they always be.”

Traditional Irish Proverb

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