REVIEW: BITCH BOXER at the Arcola Theatre 18 February – 14 March 2026
‘This is a jam-packed sixty minutes that grabs your attention from the first word to the final lighting cue.’ ★★★★
Everything in Chloe’s life looks to be on the up: she’s an independent, resourceful twenty-something who is closing in on her goal of competing at the 2012 London Olympics and is going steady with her girlfriend of two months. Then her dad – and boxing coach – dies. As Chloe navigates the aftermath of his death, she channels everything into the ring. Why face grief when you can throw punches?
Jodie Campbell is the standout of the show. A great deal is asked of her performance as Chloe; in this one-person show, she has a huge amount of text to contend with. On top of that, Prime Isaac’s direction has her boxing, skipping, dancing, and undergoing more outfit changes than I could count. Not only does Campbell meet the technical demands of all this with complete ease, she consistently brings such energy and dynamism to the stage that it’s impossible not to be drawn in.
She is aided by Charlie Josephine’s script, which deftly peels back the layers of Chloe’s tough-girl persona as the play progresses. Josephine also demonstrates an excellent command of rhythm and makes judicious use of rhyme, employing it to elevate more frenetic, heightened moments, but never allowing it to overtake the storytelling or dictate Chloe’s voice. The result is a script that convincingly sells both the high-energy action and the more introspective beats. It’s an always engaging, often funny, and sometimes poignant play.
Some aspects worked less well for me. The writing, directing, acting, movement direction, and sound design all work hard to sell the idea that we’re watching a contact sport, despite there being only one body on stage. Although this is largely successful, the play felt the absence of Chloe’s opponent in the final fight. Boxing is an intensely tactile sport; the proximity of the fighters and the chemistry between them is part of what makes films like “Rocky” so effective. Without Chloe’s opponent physically present in the final fight, the sequence is robbed of some of its excitement. Isaac’s decision to have Campbell constantly engaged in activity works very effectively when she is also speaking. However, when the stage falls silent – often during costume changes – some of the energy drains from the piece. These moments may have been intended to build anticipation, but they often feel more like waiting.
Finally, I wanted the script to go further in its exploration of grief. We spend much of the play after Chloe’s dad’s death seeing her in one mode – essentially denial, facilitated by a fixation on boxing. She is held in this state across multiple scenarios: with her girlfriend, with her boxing coach Len, and with her mother. However, we rarely dig deeper into the nuances of her grief. One segment – in which Chloe reflects on the moment she stopped holding her dad’s hand as she grew up – stands out for excavating something more specific and complicated about her loss. Otherwise, we remain largely in the same emotional register, which makes Chloe’s redemption towards the end feel slightly unearned.
That said, one cannot help but fall in love with the character, her world, and the way it’s brought to life on stage. This is a jam-packed sixty minutes that grabs your attention from the first word to the final lighting cue.
Bitch Boxer by Charlie Josephine / Arcola Theatre / 18 February – 14 March 2026
https://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/bitch-boxer/
Photography: Ross Kernahan
