The staff at ArtsConnection is taking its day job into evenings of theater! Check out Diane Exavier, Teen Reviewers and Critics Program Manager, share her thoughts on TYSON vs. ALI, currently playing at 3-Legged Dog.

TYSON vs. ALI, a new media production playing right now at 3-Legged Dog, is a physical, multi-sensory experience that takes the audience through a fight for the ages.

Directed by Reid Farrington with a script by Frank Boudreaux and choreography by Laura K. Nicoll, the play pits two of boxing’s greatest legends against each other in an actual ring for nine rounds of punches, footwork, storytelling, and so much sweat. As a director, Farrington is known for work that incorporates images and video into live performance. He does so here using archival video footage (in color and black and white) of some of Muhammed Ali’s and Mike Tyson’s most famous fights. The referee, who also plays a trainer at various points, moves around the ring holding up smallish handheld screens in specific positions as the old boxing clips are projected on to them. A visually interesting effect happens a few times when the performers mirror the projections, summoning ideas of reliving or repeating history. While the technique wasn’t always effective, mostly because there is no sure fire way to match up the quick moving bodies on film with the even quicker moving bodies on stage, it worked enough to express the point and wasn’t so distracting that it took the viewer out of the performance. Footage also plays on two larger screens set on walls outside of the ring at different points. Clips of the fighters’ bodies and faces while they are performing monologues also appear on the larger screens throughout the play.

Though the production is presented in its description as an ultimate face-off between two boxing giants, the feeling throughout most, if not all, of the hour long performance is that the creative team never quite got around the barrier of time that makes the question of “Tyson vs. Ali” so impossible in the first place. What would it be like if these men had met in the ring? The audience never quite finds out, which perhaps might be the point; but if it is, then the reasons why aren’t clearly communicated either. The play seems to dance around this, like the feet of the fast moving Ali, who makes a great joke about moving so fast that he ends up in bed before the lights turn off after he’s flipped the switch.

Part of what makes for that unsatisfactory parallel (as opposed to intersect) of Tyson and Ali’s characters, is that much of the text, like the video footage, comes from actual historical archives. It makes you want to respect the creators’ intentions in letting history speak for itself, but also makes you wonder if they, as art makers, actually have anything to say.

Even with its tip-toeing around what would have actually happened had the two met in the ring, TYSON vs. ALI, is a truly visually exciting theater experience. From the smartly placed archival projections to the physical endurance of the performers (some, perhaps all, of whom are actual boxers), the show has its audience looking everywhere and feeling every thing.

Check out the High 5 events page for more on TYSON vs. ALI, including how to get tickets.