John Conteh Bio-Drama Stages in Liverpool
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- Aron Julius wrote and stars in a bio-drama about John Conteh, with the real former WBC light-heavyweight champion joining the first-night curtain call in Liverpool
- Zach Levene plays promoter Don King and Conteh's brother Tony in dual roles, embodying the celebrity and family pressures that pull the champion toward alcoholism
- Mark Moraghan plays manager George Francis alongside Helen Carter as Joan and Amber Blease as Conteh's wife Veronica, whose feminist pushback against being sidelined is highlighted as a strength of the production
- The play's strongest sequences are solo monologues in which Julius delivers punch-by-punch accounts of bouts including the 1974 win over Chris Finnegan at Wembley and the 1980 loss to Matthew Saad Muhammad in Atlantic City
- Director Mark Womack stages the production on Zoe Murdoch's boxing-ring set, with Rebecca Wilson as fight director and Kate Harvey layering in a 70s funk soundtrack
- The review credits the show for 'punching higher than most' sporting bio-dramas but flags that it 'fizzles out into therapy-speak' when Conteh confronts his drinking
Why it matters: Liverpool audiences are getting a homegrown bio-drama about one of Britain's most charismatic 1970s sporting figures, staged with the real John Conteh's blessing. The production's strength — its poetic solo fight sequences — coexists with a dramaturgical weakness: the alcoholism arc dissolves into therapy-speak, meaning the most damaging part of Conteh's story gets the least assured writing.
