'Golden Boy' review — Josh O'Connor's performance packs a punch in this lesser-known Clifford Odets play

Read our review of Golden Boy, starring Josh O'Connor, Daniel Mays, and Hayley Squires, now in performances at the Almeida Theatre through 31 October.

Summary

• Josh O'Connor stars in Golden Boy at the Almeida Theatre
• His co-stars include Hayley Squires, Daniel Mays, Stanley Townsend, and Zubin Varla
• The Depression-era play follows one man's downfall as he turns his back on his creative passions in pursuit of fame and money

What is it like watching Josh O’Connor step back into the ring after 11 years’ absence from the stage? The consummate performer has been preoccupied with screen projects such as the Zendaya-led Challengers movie and Netflix megahit The Crown, but now he returns to theatre in Clifford Odets’s lesser-known, Depression-era Golden Boy at the Almeida.

O’Connor doesn’t pull his punches as he takes on the role of Joe Bonaparte, an ambitious and gifted violinist from an Italian American family, who abandons his true musical passions in favour of the fame and riches of boxing.

Despite the slightly unbelievable premise, which foregrounds the struggle and sacrifice in pursuit of the American Dream, O’Connor convincingly straddles both worlds: his plucky 21 year old is softly spoken and charming as he barges into boxing manager Tom Moody’s (Daniel Mays) office with stooped shoulders and a resolve to be placed in the ring. Yet there are flashes of impatience and violence even then, as Moody mocks his name and crossed eyes.

O’Connor transforms his self-assured musician into a power-hungry, conceited fighter across the play’s pacy 2-hour, 25-minute runtime. His lean body, stripped to a pair of shorts, becomes battered and bloody, and after one fight he walks around with an American flag slung across his shoulders (there is more than one heavy-handed visual motif that points toward his sacrificial obsession with the Dream, another being a cash-filled violin case).

There are achingly raw moments that point to the lost boy hidden within this contradictory man, such as when Joe confesses his feelings to Lorna in the honeyed glow of James Farncombe’s lighting design or he raises his ruined fist to the sky after winning his fight, both laughing and crying as his creative self is destroyed as part of a violent rebirth.

Odets’s script is certainly not subtle about the strain of living within America’s capitalist society. As Joe proclaims: “I want to live, and in this country that means earning some money. I don’t want to live a life on the edges.” Yet director Sam Yates makes a virtue of this with some breathtaking dramatic techniques, such as a string quartet sporadically revealed at the back of Rosanna Vize’s drab 1930s set (which spans Joe’s home, Tom’s office, and a boxing gym) when Joe is drawn back to his true passion, or the Jamie Lloyd-esque camera embedded within the punching bag, so we spin as O’Connor athletically lands heavy blows.

O’Connor is joined by a stand-out supporting cast. Mays’s desperate and slippery Tom, full of empty promises, is happy to use people to get ahead — even his lover, the realistic Lorna Moon (played with strength by Hayley Squires, recently seen in the devastating All My Sons) who has learned to protect herself after a lifetime of disappointments. Zubin Varla is unsettling as the macabre puppet master Eddie Fuseli, who wants a stake in Joe and helps to shred his humanity. Meanwhile, Stanley Townsend’s kind Mr Bonaparte, Joe’s loving father, is the warm heart of this play.

Odets’s play spoke to the America of the 1930s, but in our current world of screens and social media, where there are increasing opportunities for attention, fame, and money, his message about the corrosive power of “more” continues to ring true.

Check back for Golden Boy tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Golden Boy at the Almeida. (Photos by Marc Brenner)