**

"I wanted to partner the bravest of ideals with the bravest of sports," writes Siobhan Nicholas in the programme for her new play about courage, cowardice, war and pacifism.

The action takes place in Jimmy Mac's (Chris Barnes) boxing gym in 1967, where the conscientious objector from the First World War is training the young Jo (Polly Jordan) to box at a time when women didn't in the UK while Mohammed Ali went to prison for his refusal to fight in Vietnam.

Nicholas, who also directed, took on a heavyweight challenge which resulted in a lot of punches being thrown without one landing.

This was a poor piece of theatre in almost every aspect. The actors should have been miked; the set was ornamental; the music and sound effects distracting. At one hour and 20 minutes, the point was laboured without an interval or one moment of humour. The pace was pedestrian; there was no dynamic between the two characters; the story was told without imagination or engendering an emotional response.

All that can be said is the actors knew their lines.

The sweat and guts of boxing was swept away by an antiseptic production that cringed in the corner when it came to confronting the issues with anything more than a weak jab.