Prize Fighter (La Boite)

The Civil War that has ravaged the Congo since 1996 is not a topic most Australians could speak about with any authority and yet this largely unrecognised conflict is one of the bloodiest humanitarian crises since World War II. According to some estimates, it's believed that the grizzly, brutal fighting in the Congo has claimed the lives of nearly 6 million people, but killing is not this war's worst atrocity. Torture, rape and the enslavement of children as young as eight to be soldiers for ruthless warlords has forced millions of Congolese men, women and children to flee to neighbouring countries as refugees.

Among those who managed to escape with their lives is playwright Future D. Fidel. His experiences as a child, separated from his family and forced to live in a refugee camp, are the bedrock of his first full-length play, Prize Fighter, commissioned by La Boite Theatre Company and the Brisbane Festival in 2015. It's a text that thrums with the truth of lived experience, articulated with urgent, confronting, unflinching commitment.

Isa (Pacharo Mzembe) is a talented boxer on the brink of becoming a national champion. In his brief boxing career since arriving in Brisbane as a relocated Congolese refugee, he is undefeated, but his natural ability in the ring is rooted in a dark truth. After rebels murdered his father and sister in front of him, he was forced to be a child soldier. Fighting has become the only life he's ever known, so in search of some anchoring familiarity in an unfamiliar land he has sought out a place where he can continue to do the only thing he believes he's good at. However, boxing does not provide the solace Isa seeks, as the repercussions of his childhood traumas begin to manifest. In the ring, he is confronted by flashbacks of a horrifying past he can't escape from.

Todd MacDonald's clear, uncluttered direction is the perfect foil for the dynamism of the expertly choreographed fights. There's a breathtaking authenticity to the action - punches are thrown, sweat flies, the audience cheers as loudly and freely as an actual boxing match. The irony of this realism is that Prize Fighter isn't really about boxing at all. The idea of using the boxing ring as a place of redemption is a well-tested trope, particularly on screen, but here, boxing - a means of entertainment via violence - is symbolic of the cavalier ignorance of affluent nations and our profound misunderstanding of the lasting fallout faced by those who have fled unthinkable terrors, even when they are safely resituated.

The most telling interactions occur between Isa and his white Australian trainer Luke (Margi Brown-Ash). He tries to tell her about his flashbacks, but she dismisses them as a pesky inconvenience. Luke tries to fire Isa up by calling him a "killer", blind to the fact that killing is his greatest shame. When Isa comes close to disqualification in the ring, as visions of his past torment him into a frenzy, Luke chastises him for his lack of discipline, more concerned with winning the championship than accepting that her protege is dangerously troubled. Isa's inarticulate, flat-lined drawl and childlike logic is chalked up to being "dumb", while in truth, he is intellectually and emotionally stunted by years of crushing neglect and brutality. The psychological toll on refugees who have experienced horrors unlike anything we could imagine is seldom recognised from the comfort and security of our stable democracies, so seeing this issue explored so artfully on stage is truly significant.

Mzembe honours this difficult source material with an incredibly moving performance, simultaneously revealing the heartbreaking vulnerability of Isa's fragile mind while retaining a powerhouse physicality. His brother, Gideon Mzembe, brings genuine menace to his account of the Congolese warlord who murders Isa's family. Thuso Lekwape delivers some of the most chilling moments, as a boastful young soldier applying childish mischief to the task of murder.

During its premiere season at Brisbane's La Boite Theatre, this show was presented in the round, making the conceit of a play aping a boxing match all the more immersive. At Belvoir however, its studio-style stage reminds us that we are in the theatre and some of the magic of that boxing arena illusion is lost. Nonetheless, this does little to undermine the potency of this story, and its power to illuminate suffering that could all too easily be ignored.

La Boite Theatre presents Prize Fighter, until 22 Jan at Belvoir St Theatre, part of the Sydney Festival