Over the past half dozen years or so, the Globe has produced a boxing play, a tennis play, and a baseball play. It’s no wonder: sports are inherently dramatic. There’s conflict, there’s tension and release. There are heroes and villains. There are narratives and, most theatrical of all, there are metaphors. On the field or in the ring or on the court, moments unfold that are not only riveting in themselves, but that also point to bigger themes about our world and our lives and how they work.

That’s true of tonight’s play, The XIXth. Inspired by the true story of Tommie Smith and John Carlos and their medal-winning sprint in the 1968 Olympics, the play is interested in some very large ideas. Its broadest resonances are about the ways the personal and the political overlap, and the ways institutional interests can restrain individual ones. But more specifically it’s about race and power and political protest and freedom of speech. Smith and Carlos would have gone down in sports history for their athletic achievements alone, but when they raised their fists they stepped into an entirely new arena, and the power of their statement is still being felt. To remember them at this moment in our country’s life strikes me as vital, instructive, and inspirational.

Kemp Powers, who wrote tonight’s play, has explored the Black American experience before, also by imagining the private moments of iconic public figures. In his play One Night in Miami… and the subsequent film of it, Kemp brings together Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X and demonstrates an incisive understanding of the foibles and vulnerabilities of very famous individuals. Smith and Carlos may not be as well-known as the characters in that Miami hotel room, but Kemp imagines their inner struggles and secret doubts with equal precision and empathy. His method is to distill gigantic historic and social and political forces down to their essences, and then to drop them into someplace intimate, not epic. His gaze is on the friendship of these two men, and by looking there first, rather than starting with the national scale of what they did, Kemp allows us to comprehend a worldwide upheaval in bracingly accessible terms. He makes us feel how a corrosive historical force at an overwhelming scale—racism and bigotry on a global platform—tears at individuals and their most precious relationships. This is what theatre does better than any other form. It’s remarkable to watch.

I’m grateful to Kemp for entrusting his play to the Globe for its world premiere, and for recognizing that this theatre is deeply interested in writing like this, writing that’s brave and bold in its confrontation of complex and controversial ideas, and that enlightens and entertains in equal measure. I’m grateful too that Kemp’s colleague and my friend Carl Cofield is here to direct the production. Carl is a major figure in our national field, and his heart and talent are all-encompassing. It’s an honor to welcome both of these artists here for their Globe debuts. They’ve gathered a team of designers and actors who are all at the highest level of artistry, and together they are making what I know will be a very memorable contribution to the Globe and its work.

Thanks for coming. Enjoy the show.