Rajiv Joseph has become one of the most-produced playwrights in America by creating funny, relatable, entertaining stories that deal with cultural issues without taking sides. It’s a neat trick the multiethnic native of Cleveland, Ohio, pulls off through a rare and critical talent: His dialogue captures the way real people talk and think.
Circle Theatre is the latest North Texas troupe to mount a Joseph play, the sporty King James, which director Cherish Love Robinson handles with an appropriately light touch, drawing specific, naturalistic performances from Davayun Chase and Micah JL Brooks.
While Joseph’s comic dramas are often set in foreign locales like India (Guards at the Taj), Russia (Describe the Night) and Iraq (Pulitzer finalist Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), this one hits close to home.
Chase’s Shawn and Brooks’ Matt initially meet and bond over their shared fanaticism for the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s LeBron James’ first season in the NBA, and hope is on the rise. Can the rookie sensation end the Cavaliers’ decades-long championship drought? Like the team, the characters are still finding themselves.
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The budding entrepreneur Matt owes money, so he’s selling the season tickets his family has owned since he was a child. Tipped off by a mutual friend, the interested aspiring writer Shawn shows up at the wine bar where Matt works. Shawn’s never seen a game in person, but he’s just sold a short story and wants to treat himself.
They spend a long time haggling over the price as Joseph begins to establish the terms of an off-and-on friendship over the course of the 13 years it took James to bring an NBA title to Cleveland. Covering relationships over extended periods is a specialty of the playwright.
In this case, the plot is framed by four crucial events in the James-Cavaliers saga: his arrival; a controversial departure for the Miami Heat (“I’m taking my talents to South Beach,” he famously — and inaccurately — said at the time, as the Heat play on the mainland); his return to Cleveland; and the eventual, eventful championship.
Matt and Shawn have plenty to talk about, including the age-old debate of James vs. Jordan. (If you know, you know.) Outside of basketball, they discuss their personal lives. Matt, who’s white, is effusive. Shawn, who’s Black, is more reticent. The issue of race emerges early and at one point causes a falling out. “The problem with America” is a recurring theme. But their rising and falling fortunes act equally as a wedge between them.
The actors do a great job establishing their characters’ contrasting personalities, Brooks bouncy and optimistic, Chase more cautious and low-key with a tendency toward choosing his words carefully. What they share beyond their fandom is a combination of ambition and self-doubt.
The prolific Joseph’s style is not to make any one thing too big of a deal, to keep things moving, accumulating detail and relying on his ear to make his stories believable.
His plays were mounted 18 times during the 2024-25 season, according to American Theater magazine, tied for the most (excluding Shakespeare). Versions of King James accounted for 14. Circle Theatre’s first-rate production makes it easy to see why.
Details
King James runs through March 28 at Circle Theatre, 230 W. Fourth St., Fort Worth. $40-$45. circletheatre.com.
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