Review: Going for Gold (Park Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️

With superstar musicians and football managers having their stories taken to the stage (and that’s just at the Prince Edward!) it can be refreshing to see the stories of those who didn’t gain household recognition given the same treatment. In another life, one where Team GB had selected him for the Olympics, Commonwealth Games champion Frankie Lucas certainly could have been a household name. Alas, it was not to be, and Lisa Lintott’s Going for Gold brings his story to the Park Theatre to right just a few of the wrongs.

Featuring a cast of six and a runtime over two hours, Going for Gold is a less intimate affair than the usual Park90 show. Here, the compact space feels constantly full with cast members entering and exiting, coming to the very edge of the audience to narrate. Dacre Bracey’s set design places the corner of a boxing ring in the centre of the stage, flanked by home furnishings on one wall and office cabinets on the other, a blend acknowledging right away how blurred the lines between Frankie’s life and career would become. It’s a solid visual metaphor, though it can make things feel cluttered at times.

Lintott’s script introduces us to Frankie, played throughout by her son Jazz Lintott as a nine-year-old hopeful begging to join a local boxing gym, and follows him through to his eventual passing just last year. Along the way, we see him fall for and lose Gene, the mother of his child, reach new heights and catastrophic lows as a boxer, and create a new bond late in life with his son, Michael. Frankie Lucas’ life both in and out of the ring had plenty of moments which could be mined for moving, explorative storytelling – though a strong writer, Lintott’s more is more approach unfortunately tries to give equal weight to the less stirring moments in between.

Co-directors Phillip J Morris and Xanthus keep things moving at a firm pace, turning the play’s audience into attendees at the match to smooth transitions in and out of new venues, and it’s never confusing whether a scene is happening inside or outside of a boxing ring. Unfortunately, the pace does lag where the story does, when Frankie is going through similar motions time and time again – with much of Lintott’s script relying on narration to fill in what we don’t see, I found it odd that we seemed to see every instance of Frankie’s eyebrow being split open mid-fight. The boxing matches and training we see, courtesy of movement directors David Gilbert and Rupert Chamock, are dynamic and impactful, but lose much of their charm as the moves are returned to again and again.

The cast do exceptionally well with Lintott’s dialogue, bringing warmth and humanity to characters even when the sheer amount of his life they must cover leaves the roles somewhat underwritten. Llewella Gideon is particularly charming as Gene, the mother of Frankie’s child whose real-life counterpart I had the pleasure of sitting beside for the show’s press night. Cyril Blake and Nigel Boyle, as the two primary managers through Frankie’s career, are likeable in their performances but so interchangeable are their roles that I wondered whether a composite character might have been more effective.

The younger Lintott is commanding in his work, transforming physically and emotionally from a child to an older man, and shows a total lack of fear in revealing just how tempestuous and difficult to work with Frankie could become. He and Daniel Francis-Swaby, as his son Michael, come into their own in the powerful final scenes, where father and son build a new bond that circumstance and egotism didn’t allow them to have in Michael’s youth. This, I couldn’t help but think, is the real heart of Frankie Lucas’ story, and by far the most consistent part of Lintott’s play – it’s just a shame that it was relegated to a tragically short section at the end of a play with a lot to say, and a lack of willingness to leave anything unspoken.

As conflicting as its central figure, Going for Gold is an ambitious play with well-written dialogue and well-played characters, but could have truly soared with a more focused, less reverent approach. While it was a joy to find out just how dedicated Frankie Lucas was to his sport, and a tragedy to se just how close to lifelong glory he repeatedly came, I only wish there had been a more intimate focus, that the most powerful moments weren’t buried in a full biography.

Going for Gold plays at the Park Theatre until November 30th

For tickets and information visit https://parktheatre.co.uk/event/going-for-gold/

Photos by James Potter