Theatre Review - Going for Gold

Jazz Lintott and Nigel Boyle in Going for Gold [James Potter]

LISA Lintott’s drama Going for Gold focuses on the career of black boxer, Frankie Lucas (Jazz Lintott). Despite his prodigious talent, he struggled to be accepted by the boxing establishment.

We watch Lucas, aged nine, as he turns up at a Croydon boxing club run by police officer Ken Rimmington (Cyril Blake) and begs to be included. The age limit was 11 and he had to make do with being a spectator. Fast forward a few years and Lucas, now a teenager, is well on the way to becoming a successful amateur boxer.

After winning the British Amateur Boxing Association middleweight title in 1972 and 1973, Lucas was shocked not to be chosen to represent Great Britain at the 1974 Commonwealth Games.

Instead, he competed under the Saint Vincent flag, winning a gold medal for the island of his birth, and defeating Carl Speare, the boxer selected in his place. On his triumphant return to Britain, aged 21, he decided to go pro and trained with the legendary George Francis (Nigel Boyle) in his north London gym.

However, denied the regular fights he needed to make a name for himself, Lucas’s mental health deteriorated, exacerbated by a growing reliance on weed. After the breakdown of his marriage to Gene (Llewella Gideon), Lucas disappeared from boxing, aged just 26.

Lintott skilfully interweaves Lucas’s sporting and domestic worlds but her play occasionally lacks emotional power. There’s also insufficient dramatic tension in the second half as we watch Frank reconnect with his son Michael (Daniel Francis-Swab) in the Kentish Town care home where he resides.

Caveats aside, co-directors Philip J Morris and Xanthus immerse us in Lucas’s story, aided by a terrific cast and snippets of film footage from his fights, and it’s hard not to be moved by his tragic demise.

Until November 30

parktheatre.co.uk/

Originally published by Islington Tribune