Cornermen

Oli Forsyth

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781848427426
• eBook ISBN: 9781788500241
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Mickey and his team of cornermen never seem to have much luck in the boxing world. The fighters they manage always end up losing and, after a disastrous last outing, no one wants to work with them. 

All that changes when they sign Sid, a young boxer whose winning ways catapult them into a world of success they've never had before. However, you can't win them all – soon Mickey has to choose between the life he's enjoying, and the wellbeing of his young charge.

Tragic and funny, Oli Forsyth's play Cornermen premiered at the Old Red Lion, London, in July 2015, prior to the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was performed at VAULT Festival, London, in March 2016. The play was revived in 2018 on a UK tour.

Scene One

All four actors sit, ready, in a line of four stools behind a canvas on the floor. The canvas is the stage, whenever an actor takes to the canvas they are ‘on stage’, when they exit the canvas they are, in effect, invisible. The lights focuses in a square of light onto the canvas as MICKEY takes centre stage.

MICKEY. It’s cyclical this boxing game, keeps on turning, that’s why it’s all rounds and rings. The second one lot are done, the next generation are starting all over again, heading to the same place in the same way. It’s because we love it. The only reason we know David beat Goliath is because everyone who watched kept talking about it. Make two people fight and the spectators will come. But no one wants to watch an old fighter. We like young blood. So when you’ve thrown your best shots and you don’t move as well as you used to, that wheel will take you right back to where you started, poor with no prospects, and now twenty years older. So every boxer has a choice, either they stay on the wheel and hope their time at the top gets them enough for the journey back down. Or, they can get off, and use that wheel to take them places.

Transition. MICKEY returns for his stool as the scene moves into ‘The Pub’ where MICKEY, DREW and JOEY sit searching for ideas. They have been here for some time.

JOEY. Mark Francis?

DREW. He quit.

JOEY. What about his brother?

DREW. He quit too.

JOEY. Wasn’t there a cousin? Swear those boys had a cousin… Paddy?

DREW. Peter?

MICKEY. Paul. And he quit at around the same time.

DREW. Besides, none of them were exactly champions, were they?

MICKEY. We’re not after champions, are we? We just need someone who can put on a show and sell a few tickets.

JOEY. And stay on his feet.

Beat.

What about Ricky Mayer?

DREW. He’s got to be about forty now, we don’t want that.

JOEY. Well, at the moment we’ve got no one so let’s not discount him just yet.

DREW. We can do better than a punch-drunk pensioner.

JOEY. Oh, can we? Well, if you’ve got a young, athletic heavyweight stashed away that wants to sign with us then do point him out, Drew. But until he shows up I say we approach Mayer.

MICKEY. He won’t do it. Next fight’s his last.

JOEY. How do you know?

MICKEY. I asked him a few months ago. What about Shane Andrews?

DREW. Ah poor bloke.

JOEY. Shane?

DREW. Yep.

JOEY. Why?

DREW. Rick Morris put him to sleep in the second about a year back and he hasn’t lasted longer than four rounds since then.

MICKEY. Well, what about Rick Morris?

DREW. He quit.

Collective beat.

JOEY. Christ alive, seven years on the circuit and everyone we knew has quit.

DREW. Or died.

JOEY. Or is shit.

MICKEY. Sam Coulson found God.

JOEY (shocked). He didn’t.

MICKEY. Yeah. Set up a gym in a prison teaching young guys how to box.

DREW. Can’t hold that against him.

MICKEY. Offered me a job couple of years ago… wish I’d taken it right about now.

DREW. Freddie Baker?

JOEY. Quit.

MICKEY. Got knocked out by Poulter last year and packed it in not long after. Good call if you ask me, it was starting to show. How about Saul Burton?

Beat.

DREW. He’s not up for it, Mick.

MICKEY. What? He’s far too young to pack it in, good fighter too. What’s his problem?

DREW. No, he’s still boxing it’s just… he had some trust issues about us, about the group.

MICKEY. Trust issues?

DREW. Yep.

Beat.

MICKEY. With me?

DREW. Yeah. Well, with all of us really.

JOEY. Oh, terrific.

MICKEY. Why?

DREW. He said there was a suggestion we don’t treat our boxers as well as we should.

MICKEY. He really said that? What? Because one fighter gets hurt on our watch suddenly we can’t be trusted? I mean, Jesus. We make a couple of bad calls and they turn me into a villain!

JOEY. I know, Mick, it was our names getting smeared as well.

MICKEY. But it’s me that prats like Saul Burton want nothing to do with. They don’t understand. You have to risk things from time to time in life. I mean this isn’t golf, it’s boxing for Christ’s sake –

DREW. Look, all we need to do is sign someone who wins a few fights and moves up the rankings a bit, then all will be forgotten.

MICKEY. Bloody hope so. Can’t work in an industry where no one trusts you.

DREW. Who else? Let’s think big.

MICKEY. Hold on, before we carry on with this I could… use a break. Shall we get a drink?

JOEY. Go on then.

MICKEY. Whose round is it?

JOEY. Yours. It’s always bloody yours.

MICKEY. All right, all right. (Beat.) But let’s keep going with this first. We need to find someone.

JOEY. Mike Dennit?

MICKEY. He’s thirty-something, Joe. What are we going to do with that?

JOEY. Well, exactly, think about it, he’s established. We can book fights using his name and we all get paid. Beats scrabbling around trying to build some kid’s reputation.

DREW. And in two years’ time we’re back at this table in the same situation just with another boxer who everyone saw get knocked about on our watch. We don’t want old, we don’t want established, we need something new. Something that can grow.

JOEY. Well, help me out, Drew, refresh my memory, how did you get started again?

MICKEY sniggers.

DREW. I never got past club level really. I wasn’t made for boxing.

JOEY. Shocker.

DREW. Because you were such a star.

JOEY. I went professional.

DREW. For five years. And how many fights did you win?

...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Acknowledgements
• Cornermen
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information