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boxeur

 
Nicholas Abrams Review by Nicholas Abrams 3 Published: 29 May 2026 Divadlo Inspirace Show Dates: 28 May 2026-28 May 2026

There is something undeniably compelling about the idea behind Boxeur. Two immigrant boxers - one fleeing fascism, the other poverty and antisemitism - circling one another against the backdrop of a Europe collapsing into war should, on paper, make for an emotionally bruising piece of theatre. And at moments, Pequod Compagnia’s production hints at exactly that show. But too often the production struggles to land its punches cleanly.

struggles to land its punches cleanly

Performed in English for Prague Fringe after touring Italy and France, the production feels caught between languages. Stefano Pietro Detassis has clearly worked hard to perform in English, but memorising dialogue and fully inhabiting it are two very different things. There are stretches where the delivery feels effortful rather than instinctive, flattening moments that should crackle with tension or emotional force. The result is that scenes which likely carry greater weight in the original Italian can feel strangely muted here.

That issue is compounded by a narrative that is already somewhat difficult to follow. Boxeur charts the life of Eugenio Lorenzoni, an Italian worker who flees fascism for Paris, finding work in factories and hope in boxing, where his fate becomes intertwined with Victor, a Tunisian Jewish boxer. The show moves between political history, personal biography, and sporting rivalry, but the storytelling never entirely settles into a clear rhythm. Even allowing for the multilingual nature of the production - which includes lengthy passages in French - there were several moments where the plot became frustratingly opaque.

And yet, frustratingly, there is clearly a stronger show lurking underneath this one.

The final section suddenly sharpens into focus. Detassis reveals that parts of Eugenio’s triumphant return to the ring were fictionalised; in reality, he never made it back to Paris after the war, instead being shot while attempting to escape the Nazis during a death march. The image of Eugenio urging his brother to keep running through the forest before being killed is devastatingly effective theatre - simple, direct, and emotionally honest in a way much of the earlier material struggles to be.

It is telling that the final five minutes contain the evening’s greatest emotional impact. Suddenly the production stops reaching for mythmaking and simply tells the truth. In doing so, it finds the human story that had previously felt obscured beneath the shifting structure and uneven translation.

Detassis gives a committed performance throughout, but there remains something missing physically. For a play so rooted in boxing, the sense of athletic danger never fully materialises. The movements lack the sharpness and coiled aggression that might help ground the political material in something visceral.

Still, the audience remained deeply receptive, and it is easy to see why. Boxeur is ambitious, sincere, and driven by genuine political conviction. Its closing moments carry real emotional heft. It is simply a shame that the production does not sustain that same clarity and force across the whole evening.

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The Blurb:

Paris 1946 and the most awaited boxing match of the post-war period. Pick of Catania Fringe - boxing, courage, anti-fascism and anti-Nazism, never give up because the impossible is not forever - Boxeur