REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT SHATTERED GLOBE THEATRE
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But if there’s a director in Chicago who can make mid-20th-century realism fresh and compelling, it’s Louis Contey. He depicted bruised souls and vanishing dreams with a sure hand in his production of Clifford Odets’s Paradise Lost for TimeLine last August. In Shattered Globe’s Requiem, Contey sets the terms early, opening with a grueling bout between a horrifically bloodied and exhausted Mountain and a younger challenger. The wordless pummeling (effectively choreographed by Nick Sandys) goes on so long we’re relieved when Mountain loses on a TKO. However, Maish is distraught: unbeknownst to Mountain, the manager bet that his fighter wouldn’t go three rounds, but the tough lug made it to seven. Now Maish won’t get the money he’s promised to pay a mobster for a younger fighter. And since the doctor is telling him that Mountain’s vision, and perhaps his life, could end with the next blow, Maish’s meal ticket of 14 years may be permanently out of commission.
