"When we named it The Monsters, I thought about how society views fighting—specifically MMA fighting, boxing and other related sports—as cruel, but ultimately, it is a sport. In both this play and in real life, martial artists and actors both willingly enter an arena to do their sport. They both enter under specific conditions to battle something out, and there's a lot of respect within their craft."
"Anyanwu tells Berkeleyside she came to see MMA, a full-combat contact sport, as a type of love language between its participants."
Ngozi Anyanwu's play The Monsters, premiering at Berkeley Rep on March 27, follows LIL as she watches her estranged brother BIG compete in mixed martial arts. Anyanwu, who performs as LIL alongside actor Sullivan Jones as BIG, drew inspiration from her own brother's MMA community. The playwright sees MMA as a form of love language between participants rather than mere violence. Despite its title suggesting brutality, the play reframes fighting as a legitimate sport where both martial artists and actors willingly enter controlled environments to battle and express themselves. Anyanwu's previous works, including Good Grief and The Last of the Love Letters, explore themes of family, identity, and home.
Read at www.berkeleyside.org
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