Theatre review: The Sweet Science of Bruising

I don't think we can really call it a 2018 meme when it's so obviously a timely and appropriate response to a conversation going on everywhere, and particularly in the arts, but there's certainly been an explosion this year of shows by and about women: Particularly ones like Emilia, Sylvia and, just ending its run in the space next door to this one, Wasted, that illuminate the present through the women who've fought against society's expectations in the past. That fight is literal in Joy Wilkinson's The Sweet Science of Bruising: Her subject is Victorian women's boxing, her heroines four women from very different backgrounds who all find themselves fighting for a newly-invented world championship title when London boxing promoter Professor Charlie Sharp (Bruce Alexander) travels to Manchester in search of new talent, and discovers that promising fighter Paul Stokes (James Baxter) has a girlfriend, Polly (Fiona Skinner,) who's every bit as good if not more so.

Advertising them as brother and sister ("nobody will pay to see a husband and wife fight, they can get that at home,") Charlie stages a choreographed, one-off exhibition fight between them that'll show man's superiority; when Polly goes off-script, he realises he's discovered a potential goldmine.

He starts recruting female opponents for Polly, including Violet (Sophie Bleasdale,) a nurse and early suffragette who wants to go to Paris to train as a doctor. Employed initially to deal with ringside injuries, she sees fighting for the prize fund as a way to raise the necessary cash. As women using their fists on each other becomes something many men want to watch, other clubs around London start stealing the idea, and others who claim the title of one and only Lady Boxing Champion of the World include prostitute Matty (Jessica Regan) and Anna Lamb (Kemi-Bo Jacobs,) fighting in a mask because she's an upper-class woman trying to get some control back over a life dominated by abusive husband Gabriel (Joe Coen.)

Wilkinson's play aims to give equal prominence to the four women but in the end Violet and Polly feel the better-drawn characters (Gabriel cheating on Anna with Matty is a subplot that doesn't lead to the expected confrontation between the women, although it does lead to a dramatic one between husband and wife.) But overall Kirsty Patrick Ward's production showcases a very strong play that holds the interest even while its plot veers off into a number of directions. At its best this is compelling, keeping an entertaining feel while going into some incredibly dark themes; at its worst it can feel like Victorian melodrama, but remains watchable.

The "science" in the title also forms a strong running theme - set at a time when Darwin's work was still new and a hot topic of conversation, the women regularly come back to the idea that taking on roles associated with men both in the ring and in the wider world is a form of evolution. With quite a lot going on, there's moments when the interest inevitably dips, but whenever you think it's lost it The Sweet Science of Bruising lands a sucker-punch.

The Sweet Science of Bruising by Joy Wilkinson is booking until the 27th of October at Southwark Playhouse's Little Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Mitzi de Margary.