<b>KING JAMES</b> D'Youville University/Kavinoky Theatre SpeakupWNY | Buffalo NY and Buffalo News

Through November 24
KING JAMES D’Youville University/Kavinoky Theatre

Sports can be a social glue, whether by competing or by being an allied fan of a sports team.
Just look around you at this time of year and see the Bills gear or that fall Monday conversation about the game results the day before.
Skip the Buffalo connections.
Rajiv Joseph’s “King James” is about Lebron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers and two core Cavs fans, Matt (Brendan Didio) and Shawn (Jake Hayes).
They meet when Akron, Ohio native James has announced he’s leaving the Cavs for the warm weather of the Miami Heat.
That’s in 2004.
We never see King James, only hear about him and see the two men simulating him.
Joseph portrays the relationship between Matt and Shawn as shifting over years, from James leaving town to when Cleveland wins the NBA title in 2016 (with James back) and the relationship crumbles.
In the beginning, Shawn is looking for game tickets and Matt is selling his because he is in some sort of financial problem, not unusual.
While discussing the tickets and the lack of success of the Cavs, they begin to develop a friendship in the bar where Matt is working and dreaming of his own place.
His family owns a second-rate antique and upholstering shop.
We never get a complete fix on Shawn’s situation because he dodges around verbally.
Eventually, he goes off to New York for grad school and a planned Hollywood career.
He’s on a very early step as the play closes.
For as long as they hang out, there is always something a little off.
A basketball star and the local team are fine for guy talk, but these are very different people and that’s not clear until late in the play when it becomes very clear and the friendship shatters painfully, like that large sticky bandage which is ripped off in one continuous motion.
What happens reflects an unconscionable thing Matt says, without thinking, and Shawn suggests the comment reflects his mental reality.
Maybe.
It should not have been said.
Unmentioned to now, Matt is White and Shawn is Black and that affects the reaction.
Most of us have probably heard crazy stories about the sports reactions to competing teams, racial or neighborhood or high school or even former player and former non-player contacts.
You must listen carefully to the dialogue in “King James,” listening for that fan mentality.
Director Thembi Duncan does well here, with this two-party play, not letting the jock talk interfere with where the play is going.
Donnie Woodward’s set helps, the fading bar, the fading parental business and the imagined scene as the Cavs win it all.
Duncan made the right choices in casting Hayes and Didio, who work well together.
The next time you are with friends at a game or in some sports bar, look around you and see how mixed your peer group is (or should be).
Take King James as an example.

A.W.