A Fusion of Culture, History and Athletics

The Great Leap – Steppenwolf Theatre

Saul is a San Francisco basketball coach. A divorced father of a young daughter, his “family” is his team. He loves them, protects them, nurtures them and wants only the best for them. But, more than anything else in life, Saul wants to beat the Chinese basketball team in Beijing. Back in 1971, Saul was sent to China to help polite, good-natured gentleman, Wen Chang, a Communist official, understand the finer points of basketball and assemble his own winning Chinese team. Flash ahead to 1989 and Saul is about to bring his own talented team of American players to Beijing to challenge Wen Chang’s highly competitive team.

During his 1971 visit, while Saul teaches Wen Chang all about the sport that his government’s charged him to coach, he also shocks his student. Saul instructs him to cajole, trick and insult his opponents, while also taunting his own players into playing their best game. Volatile Saul explodes in volumes of profanity, while his Asian counterpart stands by quietly, trying to contain his shock. The American’s swearing and unsportsman-like behavior is recorded in Wen Chang’s notebook to be considered and, perhaps, used when he begins coaching his own team.

Flash ahead eighteen years later when Saul is making final preparations for his own team’s return to Beijing. Suddenly a seventeen-year-old Chinese-American kid named Manford bursts into the college gymnasium. He desperately wants to join Saul’s team as their new, star player. Manford pleads with Saul to let him go to Beijing with the college athletes, where he guarantees he’ll help the team win against the Chinese. Manford has another, private reason for wanting to go to China, which is gradually revealed as the play progresses. It has to do with his family history, particularly his parents, and his decision is supported by his young, no-nonsense “cousin,” Connie.

Playwright Lauren Yee, whose recent Victory Gardens’ production of “Cambodian Rock Band” was a huge success with critics and audiences alike, has written another exciting, highly physical drama. Ms. Yee’s play is truly fast-paced. The stakes are high and the energy level is always tough and tireless. Even the dialogue is rapid-fire. The lines have a staccato feel and are  supercharged, reminding the audience of the rhythmic sound of a basketball rapidly dribbling down a court. Ironically, for a play about basketball, we never actually see anyone really playing the game. In fact, there’s seldom a basketball in sight. When one does appear it’s merely bounced a few times or rolled across the floor. 

There’s not even any basketball hoops present in Justin Humphres’ sparse scenic design; there’s only a highly polished wooden gym floor. Yet, between Keith Parham’s spectacular lighting, in which he uses lasers to create movement on the gym floor, Rasean Davonte Johnson’s superb projections and Pornchanok Kanchanabanca’s evocative original music and specific sound design, combined with actor Glenn Obrero’s outstanding athleticism and miming, the audience will leave the theatre believing they’ve just seen a real basketball game.

The production is intelligent, aggressive and animated, thanks to Jesca Prudencio’s spirited direction. Known for her staging of  highly physical works at theatres across the country, Ms. Prudencio is blessed to be working here with such a topnotch cast. Keith Kupferer, seen in Steppenwolf’s productions of “The Qualms,” the Goodman’s “Support Group for Men” and “God of Carnage,” must be precisely what Lauren Yee had in mind when she wrote the role of Saul. Kupferer is a man’s man in every role he plays. Here he minces no words, hides no feelings and lays it all out in plain view for the audience to see and hear. Talented James Seol, who plays Wen Chang, initially appears as an innocent man, displaying an air of wonder and quiet dignity. As we leave him in 1971, we see a young man trying to digest a lot of information and ideas that conflict with his genteel, Chinese upbringing. But when we meet Wen Chang again in 1989, while  he’s still reserved, he now possesses a cool, steely determination. Everything is internal, with Wen Chang; he keeps his emotions in check, while harboring a killer drive to bring his Beijing team to victory against Saul, his brutish mentor. Mr. Seol is a magnificent actor in this role.

Deanna Myers is strong, organized and feisty as Connie, a young woman who knows exactly what she wants and how to achieve it. She also knows what’s best for Manford, the Chinese-American high school kid who’s staying at her family’s house. Connie knows that her young boarder needs someone older and wiser to help guide his life choices and, as another Chinese-American, she fully understands much of what he’s experiencing and facing. But the real star of this production is Glenn Obrero. As Manford, the seventeen-year-old basketball phenom, Mr. Obrero not only looks like a high school kid, he has the endless energy and seems to possess the unbridled athletic skills of an adolescent. He makes this character real. Manford, in Obrero’s capable hands, is a living, breathing teenager in whom we believe and for whom we cheer. We believe this young man when he claims he can make 100 free throws without missing. But we also feel for this boy who just buried his mother and doesn’t know his father. Glenn Obrero is one multitalented young actor with a great future ahead of him.

Lauren Yee continually proves to be one of our finest, most exciting playwrights. In this supercharged Chicago premiere that’s a must-see production as part of Steppenwolf’s unbelievable 44th season, we have a story that fuses culture,  history, family ties and athletics. It’s an amazing tale that leaves the audience breathless with anticipation and wonder, as Jesca Prudencio’s powerful, artistically skillful production jumps high and shoots straight into every theatergoer’s heart.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas    

Presented September 15-October 20 by Steppenwolf Theatre in the Upstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the box office, by calling 312-335-1650 or by going to www.steppenwolf.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.