Press Releases

Check Out This TYSON VS. ALI Benefit Performance!

Published

12 years ago

January 24, 2014

New York, New York —3-Legged Dog (Kevin Cunningham, Artistic Director) and Performance Space 122 are thrilled to announce a special benefit performance of TYSON vs. ALI for Ring 10 Veterans Boxing Foundation of New York. The benefit will take place on Friday, January 31 at 7:30 PM. Tickets will be available by calling Ovationtix at 866-811-4111. For more information, visit www.3ldnyc.org.

Ring 10 Veterans Boxing Foundation of New York offers direct assistance and financial aid to impoverished and/or ailing fighters. The TYSON vs. ALI fundraising event is spearheaded by legendary PR-man Jules Feiler, whose clients have included boxing greats: Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr, Ray “Boom-boom” Mancini, Larry Holmes, among others. Many former champions are expected to attend the benefit on the 31^st in support of Ring 10.

Harrowing and unpredictable, TYSON vs. ALI realizes the greatest heavyweight-boxing match that never happened, placing two giants of boxing, Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, into the ring in a way no one thought possible. Using a volatile combination of dance, theater and new-media stagecraft, artist and director Reid Farrington examines the emotional life and physical experiences of aspiring boxers through the larger-than-life personas of Iron Mike and The Greatest. TYSON vs. ALI explores how differently these two epic fighters reigned as champions and how their histories and personalities affected their community and the world at large.

With “an often spellbinding exactitude to [Farrington's] melding of video and performance” (New York Times), each boxer is lifted out of their respective careers and private histories to engage with one another. As the two jab, block and weave in video projection, live stunt performers silhouette their every move, landing real blows, creating a viscerally convincing version of the impossible: Ali and Tyson boxing and interacting as contemporaries.

TYSON vs ALI is created and directed by Reid Farrington, written by Frank Boudreaux and choreographed by Laura K. Nicoll, Thecast features Dennis A. Allen II, Roger Casey, Femi Olagoke, Dave Shelley,and Jonathan Swain.