The Royale Rehearsal Photo © Helen Murray
‘Not to be missed.’
★★★★★
The Times
Jay ‘The Sport’ Jackson dreams of being the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. But it’s 1905 and, in the racially segregated world of boxing, his chances are as good as knocked out.
When a boxing promoter hatches a plan for the ‘Fight of the Century’, The Sport might land a place in the ring with the reigning white heavyweight champion, but at what cost? It’s not just a retired champ he’s facing, it’s ‘The Great White Hope’. In daring to realise his dream, is Jay responsible for putting African American lives in the danger zone?
Told in six rounds and set in a boxing ring, The Royale is inspired by the often overlooked story of Jack Johnson, a boxer who – at the height of the Jim Crow era – became the most famous and the most notorious black man on Earth.
“Ain’t about bein’ no Heavyweight Champion of the White World.
It’s about bein’ Champion, period.”
Marco Ramirez is an award-winning American playwright who is currently a writer on staff for FX’s most successful running television series, Sons of Anarchy, and has also written on Da Vinci’s Demons and Netflix’s hit show, Orange is the New Black.
This UK premiere is directed by Bush Theatre Artistic Director Madani Younis and stars Nicholas Pinnock (Fortitude, Sky Atlantic) as Jay ‘The Sport’ Jackson, alongside Frances Ashman and Clint Dyer (both stars of Perseverance Drive, Bush Theatre), Gershwyn Eustache Jnr (Home, Royal National Theatre) and Ewan Stewart (Jumpy, Royal Court).
Jaimie’s previous designs at the Bush Theatre include Disgraced and Perseverance Drive.
Theatre design credits include: The Lady Goes To War, Fever Pitch, Blue Remembered Hills, The Alchemist (National Theatre) and Children Of Eden. He also designed a bi-lingual version of Tale Of Two Cities, which toured England and France; The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek, Pretend You Have Big Buildings, Christmas Is Miles Away and Things OF Dry Hours for Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre and Aces And Jacks for Guildhall at the Bridewell. Jaimie has completed five touring Shakespeare productions including Macbeth, Romeo And Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest and Hamlet and seven productions for Y-Touring Theatre Company. Jaimie also designs for the Centrepoint Theatre in Dubai: Sweeney Todd, Cats, West Side Story, Hairspray. Other credits include Sticks And Stones, House Of Blue Leaves, Memory Of Water and Be My Baby. He continues to assist other designers on productions in the West End and abroad.
Credits for the Bush include The Royale (2015), Disgraced and Fear.
West End credits include Dance ‘til Dawn (Aldwych), Midnight Tango (Phoenix, Aldwych), Never Forget (Savoy), Storm in a Flower Vase (Arts Theatre), Footloose (Novello, Playhouse), Holding the Man (Trafalgar Studios), The Female of the Species (Vaudeville), Calamity Jane (Shaftesbury).
Other recent credits include Miss Julie / Black Comedy, A Marvellous Year for Plums, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, Wallenstein, Funny Girl, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Witches, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Alice in Wonderland and The Snow Queen (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Dumb Waiter (The Print Room), The Good Person of Sichuan (Mercury, Colchester), The Jungle Book (Citizens, Glasgow), Stroke of Luck (The Park), Bully Boy (St James, London and Royal, Northampton), April in Paris, The Odd Couple, Moonlight and Magnolias and Twelfth Night (Perth Theatre), A Christmas Carol, Arcadia, Grimm Tales and Gates of Gold (Library Theatre, Manchester), The Absence of Women (Lyric, Belfast), James and the Giant Peach (Birmingham Stage Company), A Voyage Round My Father (Salisbury Playhouse), Loves Labours Lost (Rose Theatre), Salonika (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Animal Farm (Bath Theatre Royal) and Monkee Business (Manchester Opera House). For Tall Stories credits include The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale, Emily Brown and the Thing and Snow White.
Madani took over as Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre in 2012. He directed the critically acclaimed UK premiere of The Royale in 2015 which was revived in 2016. In 2013 he won the Groucho Club Maverick Award for the theatre, following the most successful season in the theatre’s history which played to 99% capacity. Also for the Bush Theatre he has directed The Principles of Cartography as part of Black Lives, Black Words, Zaida and Aadam as part of This Place We Know, Perseverance Drive and Chalet Lines.
Madani is currently working as a member of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Board.
Prior to his appointment at the Bush Theatre, he was Artistic Director of Freedom Studios in Bradford, Yorkshire where his work included the site-specific work, The Mill – City of Dreams. He has also worked nationally and internationally as a theatre director, writer and practitioner. He was previously Director of Red Ladder Theatre Company’s Asian Theatre School where he directed included Silent Cry, Free World and Streets of Rope.
He originally trained in film, and his debut short film Ellabellapumpanella, commissioned by the UK Film Council, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007. He was the recipient of the Decibel Award at the South Bank Awards show in 2006.
Marco Ramirez has had plays produced at Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles), The Old Globe (San Diego), The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (DC), and Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays. He’s currently an artist in residence at Atlantic Theatre Company, and is under commission at both Playwrights Horizons and Center Theatre Group. On television, he’s been nominated for WGA and Emmy Awards, and his writing credits include Sons of Anarchy (FX), Da Vinci’s Demons (Starz), Orange is the New Black (Netflix), and Marvel’s Daredevil (Netflix).
