Maggie Donnelly fights with Lisa Hodsoll (Teresa Castracane Photography)

By DCist contributor Scott Harris

Some Washington audiences look for entertainment in a night at the theater; others may turn to the spectacle of violent sport. A new play from the D.C. playwrights collective The Welders, Girl in the Red Corner, hopes to find a common ground for these two very different demographics.

The play takes place in the world of mixed martial arts, or MMA. It may seem built more on violence than rules, but that imbues it with a level of competition more intense than any other sport. That brutal honesty—and the courage it takes to face it—inspired this violent drama about a young woman trying to navigate life and MMA.

“There’s an individuality that comes with being a mixed martial artist that’s unique to the sport,” said Audrey Bertaux, who plays Halo, the red-corner protagonist. “The script portrays real people who have real problems that everyone can relate to. We expanded that into this physical side of the fight. She’s fighting in her day-to-day life against little injustices, and it blends into the physical.”

D.C.’s MMA scene lags behind that of other big cities, but is not entirely moribund. Academies like Capital MMA, which helped the play’s principals with training and choreography, are not hard to find. The Temple Hills, Maryland based Team Lloyd Irvin has the area’s best track record for sending graduates to Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC, the sport’s major league promoters. Even so, only a few Team Irvin fighters have made the UFC leap, while cases of alleged sexual assault damaged the camp’s national reputation.

While Baltimore hosted the UFC 172 blockbuster in 2014, the UFC has never brought a marquee pay-per-view event to the DMV, and even smaller events are few and far between.

The theater may not seem like the most suitable venue for MMA promotion. But playwright Steven Spotswood, who wrote Girl in the Red Corner, embraces the overlap between such different worlds.

Audrey Bertaux prepares for a fight flanked by Lisa Hodsoll and Jennifer J, Hopkins (Teresa Castracane Photography)

That commitment is evident from the moment one sees a sees a chain-link cage on the Atlas stage. Real MMA fighters serve as ushers at some of the performances, and special theme nights are on the calendar for current and perhaps would-be trainees.

“I would love to get a mix of theater people and MMA people, ” Spotswood said. “Hopefully it entertains and surprises both sides of the spectrum.”

The play can already claim a few converts, like Spotswood. “Until this I was a sports fan but limited to football,” he said. “When I started writing this play I started watching online and catching UFC events…I’m really an enthusiast now. There are a ton of misconceptions about the sport. People come from all walks of life to step into the cage, which I find really inspiring.”

Bertaux had “zip, zero” familiarity with MMA before reading for the part of Halo. That changed in a hurry.

“I think it’s an incredible sport,” she said. “I’ve really kind of fallen in love with a lot of things about it.”

The actor plans to continue taking MMA classes at the Capital MMA branch in her native Takoma Park. Her interest in the sport deepened after an epiphany of sorts during an amateur show she attended in Ashburn, Virginia as part of her recon for the role.

“I had never seen anything like it, that level of physical violence up close,” she said. “It’s inspiring to see a woman who can bring that level of physical force.”

Bertaux and Spotswood both hope to bring some of that inspiration to playgoers and the local MMA scene. Girl in the Red Corner is more than mere novelty, however. Strong performances and a good script bring humanity to fighting—whether it’s in a cage match or in our every day life.

What happens in the cage doesn’t stay in the cage. Spotswood says, “just as [Halo] is learning all these new skills and transforming her body in the gym, she’s also going through some big upheavals in her personal life. Those two start to run together.”

Girl in the Red Corner runs through Nov. 20 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE.