That Championship Season -- by Jason Miller (1973)

Description
Jason Miller's That Championship Season is not for the faint of heart. The language and content is enough to make your eyes bulge out of your head. It reminds me most of Glengarry Glen Ross, a play for which I did not care. This play centers on the reunion of four high school basketball teammates and their coach. They reminisce on their championship season, grapple with their crumbling lives, and cling to nostalgia. I will be honest: I did not care for this play much at all, so my blog is not as in-depth about it. I don't know exactly why plays of this nature turn me off entirely, but they do. To each his or her own!

Candid Reactions

  •  How many shows has Santo Loquasto been involved with over the years? 
  • Jason Miller's biography and credits certainly are interesting. 
  • The description of the setting is a gold-mine for scenic designers. 
  • The guns have a foreshadowing presence. 
  • Whoa. This gets out of hand quickly. 
  • How interesting to describe the coach as having an "Old Testament temperament" (139). 
  • Phil provides some comments for us to chew on: "The stupid bastards don't realize you can't kill a mountain. Mountains grow back . . ." (141). 
  • The elephant story surprised me. 
  • Some of these lines are just so over-dramatic: "I am a talented young man being swallowed up by anonymity! I want my share!" (144). Really?
  • Okay, I can't take James seriously: "You've got your career to think about. Killing Phil is not worth it" (145). 
  • These guys are despicable. 
  • Here we go with another cringeworthy statement: "Everything is in the past . . . tense. I'm in the past tense" (150). I understand that these guys are all drunk, but these lines are too much. 
  • Did he literally just slap his teeth out. I can't do this. 
  • And there we go . . . throwing up in the trophy . . . 'cause we can't go without that metaphoric moment . . . 
  • Phil needs soap in his mouth!
  • Hands-down the best line of the play comes from the coach: "I carved your names in silver" (154). 
  • Ah, there season was a hoax. 
  • That is seriously how it ends? Eye roll, eye roll, eye roll. 

Top Two Aspects/Reasons for Winning
1. Cautionary Tale: Fraternal relationships
The script plunges the audience into heated arguments between members of a tight-knit brotherhood. The play questions the fragility of relationships when relationships are founded on nostalgia and subversive masculinity. 

2. Cautionary Tale: Win-at-all-costs
I would not be surprised to see this play revived soon for its eerie echoes of Trumpian politicking.

Classroom Implications
Never in a million years. Perhaps in a college drama course this text could be paired with Glengarry Glen Ross.

Personal Takeaway
I have something against gritty male-dominated scripts, perhaps.

Ranking

Dialogue
Characters
Plot/Conflict
Symbol/Literary Devices
Overall Enjoyment
TOTAL SCORE






6.0
0
Unfollowable; unrealistic; diction does not match character
Undeveloped; does not reflect humanity
Not engaging; predictable; reader can step away from text because it isn’t gripping
Devices are apparent for cleverness and do not enhance the story
Reader has no interest in re-reading play (.75)
1
Not consistently realistic (1.25)
Well-developed; most depictions reflect humanity (1.25)
Semi-engaging; some unnecessary plot-points (1.25)
Devices somewhat enhance story (1.5)
Reader would re-read with pleasure and reminded of work
2
Realistic; connotative; diction matches characters
Fully-developed; depictions reflect humanity  
Engaging; unique; reader finds it impossible to put down text because the conflict is so gripping!
Devices seamlessly enhance the story and provide rich interpretation
Reader would re-read the play on own volition, enthusiastically  

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Rankings

9.75 -- Fences by August Wilson ( 1987 ) 9.5 -- The Subject Was Roses by Frank D. Gilroy (1965) 9.25 -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (1955) 9.25 -- The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn (1978) 9.25  --   Long Day's Journey into Night  by Eugene O'Neill  (1957) 9.25 -- Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire (2007) 9.25 -- Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks ( 2002 ) 9.0 -- Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner (1993)   9.0  --  Anna Christie  by Eugene O'Neill  (1922) 9.0 -- Cost of Living by Martyna Majok ( 2018 ) 9.0 -- Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1949) 9.0 -- Doubt by John Patrick Shanley (2005) 9.0 --  The Flick by Annie Baker (2014) 9.0 -- 'night, Mother by Marsha Norman (1983) 9.0 -- Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes ( 2012 ) 8 .75 --  Beyond the Horizon by Eugene O'Neill (1920) 8.75 -- How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel ( 1998 ) 8.75 -- ...
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