For a drama centered on the intense relationship between one the world’s most dazzling wordsmiths and a show-stopping athlete of almost otherworldly grace and physical prowess, “Shaw vs. Tunney” is an often ponderously static piece.
There’s certainly potential in playwright Douglas Post’s world premiere play for Grippo Stage Company. The script explores the real-life, decadeslong friendship between world heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney and Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. But “Shaw vs. Tunney” limps and falters where it should float and sting, hampered by a plot anchored not in storytelling but in philosophical debate.
