Harlem bootblack turned champion boxer, Andy Whitman soon discovers he is fighting against more than his opponent in the ring…

A headstrong 19 year old with a bitter flaming pride and a yearning to leave America, Andy Whitman is discovered by a scout during a street fight. Lured from his family and a burgeoning love affair into the world of boxing by the promise of big bucks and a new start, he finds it a system hard to beat from the bottom.

Set in New York at the end of the Depression, Walk Hard employs a large cast of gloriously flamboyant characters, acerbic wit and a cracking dialogue that takes a vicious swipe at the boxing racket.

This long neglected play was first performed on Broadway in 1942 and is the first in the Tricycle Theatres African-American Season. A trio of plays that will chronicle the Black experience in America from 1900 to 2005, Walk Hard will be followed by the British premieres of August Wilsons Gem of the Ocean and Lynn Nottages Fabulation.