White Feather Boxer

The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, Friday, June 17

Tickets £12.50/£10, starts 8pm, call 01273 201801 or visit theoldmarket.com.

WHEN White Feather Boxer premiered in Eastbourne two weeks ago, no one watching could have known the play's inspirational figure was soon to die.

Set in April 1967, the story follows an elderly boxing trainer called Jimmy who, from a shabby sparring gym, hears the news that heavyweight world champion Muhammad Ali has defied the US military by refusing to fight in Vietnam.

Ali's refusal to go to war in real life shook the world and was one of several tenets by which the man was remembered after his passing last Friday on June 3.

Siobhan Nicholas, writer and director of White Feather Boxer, told The Guide the play's approach won't change ahead of next Friday's Old Market show.

She says, "The approach has to stay the same but the world has changed a bit now. Jimmy talks of Ali in the present tense and for Chris Barnes [the actor] those lines are bound to sit in a different place now.

"We also hear Ali’s recorded voice during the show so for all of us that is bound to resonate strongly during future performances."

In the play, after hearing Ali's anti-Vietnam speech, Jimmy reflects on the choice he himself made during the First World War, when conscription sent pacifists to prison or the firing squad - when he, at the peak of his boxing career and physical prowess, stood up for what he believed despite the terrifying consequences.

Jimmy faces a new dilemma when a talented 16-year-old called Jo needs his help, and he has to decide whether to tame her wild side and teach her discipline and respect.

Siobhan says, "When I sat down to write this last year, Jo kind-of appeared on the page. It was actually meant to be a solo show for Chris but I let Jo stay because I realised she could challenge Jimmy on so many levels and I also figured it would be good to see the trainer train.

"And besides, Lordy we do need more roles for women in theatre."

Aside from the added poignancy of Ali's demise, the piece also marks the centenary of the 1916 conscription laws that saw men drafted to the front line during the war.

Siobhan admits there were raised eyebrows over coming at the war from a boxing angle but says, "The conscientious objectors of the First and Second World Wars were braver than the brave and yet our government and the majority of the public regarded them as cowards. I wanted to unpick those notions of bravery and duty.

"There was a lot of boxing on the telly when I was a child and I used to watch it with my Dad; I was well aware at an early age of the courage of those who dared enter a ring. The idea of combining the bravest of sports with the courage of the conscientious objector took root quickly in my mind. I knew that if my conscientious objector was a boxer then the charge of cowardice could never enter the debate."

She says she could not resist reviving the archetype of the retired boxer who becomes a trainer as seen in Rocky: "The wise old warrior who has survived and is still nurturing the young."

Boxing is in Siobhan's family. Her father boxed as a young boy in Derry and she has always been surrounded by people passionate about the sport.

In researching the play Siobhan immersed herself in the sport and said writing the play was a tribute to her father, who died last August.

Referring to the late Ali, Siobhan adds, "I knew already Ali was a boxer of genius with superhuman charisma but the documentaries and his biography reveal a brilliant mind, not just a lip, and extraordinary kindness. Ali wasn’t perfect but he was the greatest - it’s that simple.

"His conscientious objection in 1967 undoubtedly changed America’s view on the war in Vietnam and gave fire to the peace movement.

"Significantly in later years, despite his Parkinson’s, the brave old lion never lost his roar. When I watched all the news footage after his death, I was struck again by that iconic image of Ali lifting the Olympic torch despite his disease - that must have taken even more courage than getting in the ring with Sonny Liston."

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