13 September 25 - OctOber 1, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents “I was talking to a bartender at Woody’s,” Jones recalls. “I’m auditioning for this show about Luka getting traded from the Mavericks, and the role I’m auditioning for is this every- man type character, and his name is Nico. He’s like, ‘That’s hilarious. It would be wild if his name was Nico Harrison.’ And I’m like, ‘It is.’ He slapped his forehead with his palm. I com- pletely misread this whole script.” Jones has been acting on stage since child- hood. He debuted as a cake-serving utensil in The Beauty and the Beast and had to convince his friends that he wasn’t an iron. Playing bas- ketball was never on his radar, nor was watching his hometown Mavericks. “I went back and reread it,” Jones says. “Anytime I thought a character might be made up, I’m just going to look them up. And it turns out, every single character that I thought was made up is a real person, and not only a real person, but a well-known real person.” Jones is the only member of the six-per- son cast of The Trade who plays only one character. His five co-stars are each their own one-person ensemble, with character cameos based on nearly everyone involved in the greater NBA and Mavericks universe. Take it from Jeff Swearingen, who ap- pears as Mark Cuban and Adam Silver in The Trade, plus a few other surprise parts. Swear- ingen is a Mavs fan and a prolific stage and film actor, first working with Lyle in 2007. “New works always excite me,” Swearin- gen says. “More so than doing something that’s done everywhere for the last 60 years or some- thing. This is just like yesterday, and the script is incredibly polished for how new it is.” Jones agrees. “Probably my favorite part of doing the- ater is being involved with new works,” Jones says. “To be involved with a new work centered around an event where the fallout is still a very present, ever-changing thing has been so exciting.” Brian Gonzales, a seasoned Broadway actor who plays several minor roles in The Trade, shares similar sentiments. “He’s very good at mining the comic po- tential as well as the dramatic potential,” Gonzales says of Lyle. “I was excited to see what he was going to do with the Greek tragedy, and the script I read was hilarious.” “It was so funny,” Jones adds. “About halfway through, I started getting nervous because I realized I’m going to have to be on stage with these people and not break. Nico can’t break.” Tragedy into Triumph A fter attending the first full cast read- through, we can vouch for the laughs this play promises. Without giving too much away, the parody pulls zero punches: Nico, Luka, Cuban — at some point, every- one is the butt of a joke in The Trade. Audi- ences will likely feel like they have stepped inside a South Park episode set in Dallas. To that end, the set being constructed for The Trade is unreal, as it transforms Theatre Three’s in-the-round auditorium into a min- iature American Airlines Center, with player tunnels, concession stands and actual hoops. “There is an ambition to this,” Gonzales says. “I’ve been involved with things that were ambitious on a foolish level, and then I’ve been part of things that were ambitious on a man- ageable, or at least whimsical level. The ambi- tion behind this one, I think, is gonna work.” For some, the ambition behind The Trade goes beyond its over-the-top comedy or bit- ing Dallas satire and toward providing some relief for any of the unhealed wounds since last February. If it’s any solace, even though the Wonder Boy has left the city, the joy The Trade brings proves that in Dallas, there will always be just a bit of “Luka magic” in the air. “It’s offering the opportunity for some clo- sure and the audience to enjoy the trade,” Cline says. “To not have it be something that sets us behind. Maybe something that pushes us forward, and we can move past the nega- tivity of it and find some joy in Dallas sports again.” The Trade’s greatest storytelling strength offers us a chance for collective healing, aided by ways to laugh about it all. What else can we do now, right? “They’re still processing the feelings,” Swearingen says of Mavs fans. “People have some pretty big feelings about it. I think the most important part is that we’re going to provide a space and a time where we can have that communion of going through this together. We’ll be able to sit in a room and kind of laugh and process all the things that we’re feeling. Misery loves company.” The Trade opens at Theatre Three on Oct. 9 and runs through Nov. 2. Christopher Durbin Matt Lyle is a co-writer of The Trade. Culture from p10 GOT WEEKEND PLANS? NOW YOU DO! Scan here to view our events calendar (updated daily!) D
