“Colossal”
Andrew
Hinderaker
It is 2
p.m., and the lobby-waiting audience finally begins its descent into the
lower-floor theatre for the afternoon’s matinee. Reverberating ever more loudly are the beats and crashes of
drums and cymbals. As we turn the
corner at stair’s end, we make our way around the end zone of an
artificial-turf football field into theatre seats arrayed as a stadium. On the field, fully padded, muscular
players go through pre-game-like stretches, push-ups, and drills over the
watchful eye of a whistle-blowing, barking coach while a fervent drum-line
marches in formation around and amongst the pounding and puffing, already
sweaty footballers. Across the
field is a lighted scoreboard ticking off the minutes to the start of game and
play as sidewalk passers-by on the other side of the full-window wall behind it
peer in with curious expressions.
Dodging band and ball players is a lone, fifty-something ballet dancer
doing his own one-man show completely oblivious of the others; and they, of
him. And thus it goes for the full
fifteen-minute countdown when at horn’s blow, windows suddenly are shaded;
lights, extinguished; and on-field action, halted.
As if it
were not already obvious from this pre-play skirmish why Andrew Hinderaker
chose to title his 5-city, rolling premiere play Colossal, the next four
fifteen-minute quarters of game and play were about to reveal many
reasons. On this simulated
gridiron with eleven very authentic, college football hunks; a working
scoreboard; and an incredibly talented and precision-marching quartet of
percussionists, we are about to witness a play that tackles multiple, complicated
topics. In rapid succession our
players lay out big questions that they and we must wrestle: America’s favorite passion and sport
and the life-altering injuries it is causing to our heroes on the field;
rampant homophobia and gay-bashing among men who alternate between resembling
playful boys and fierce rivals in their own relationships; sometimes
complicated dynamics of interracial friendship and love; and parental hopes
that unmet escalate into explosions between fathers and sons. Add in a football team that transforms
in front of us into a fully accomplished modern dance troupe, an actor who
plays a paraplegic part on stage that is real-life for him on a day-to-day
basis, and a story that grips our souls and attention from beginning kick-off
to the end; and Colossal is surely the only title this amazing world premiere
could have.
Rolling
onto and all about the field in his powered wheelchair, Mike uses his remote
control to start, stop, reverse and spot focus the football play and action
around him. He soon halts a
dramatic, flying leap by one player as he dives over the heads of
defenders. That player leaves the
frozen scene, comes over to Mike, and begins a banter that will continue off
and on for the next four quarters of our play. We soon discover that the footballer is Young Mike prior to
a tragic injury three years earlier.
Young Mike encourages our chair-bound Mike to relive in his memory the
glory of his starring past; Mike directs Young Mike to replay both fun and
difficult moments, going as far back as when he announced to his shocked and soon-furious
dad (himself leader of his own dance company) that he was foregoing all his
years of studio training for the gridiron. Now living with his Dad, Mike is resentful of every attempt
his Dad makes to help ease his day-to-day struggles. With his psychology-trained physical therapist, he works
half-diligently to recover some use of limp limbs and muscles while dodging
attempts to open up and share his inner turmoil with the counselor. Starts and stops of memories flash in
his mind’s eye and on the stage before us; and an air of mystery builds exactly
why Mike is so reluctant to restart his life. The climax will as a pas
de deux that is
breath-taking and heart-touching.
Zack
Weinstein as the chair-bound Mike gives a performance that soars in every respect. We visibly experience close-hand his
mental and physical pain as he struggles through very real rehabilitation
exercises with his always encouraging yet persistently demanding
therapist/counselor Jerry (Steven Michael Walters). We smile, laugh, and sigh as he remembers scenes of field,
gym, and shower purposeful bumping, tumbling, and touching with more than just
a passing coincidence his darkly handsome co-captain Marcus as well as their
hotel-room first night of passionate encounter. Our hearts extend to his devoted father/companion (the able
actor and dancer Joel Ferrell) as he repeatedly is rejected by a son who so
clearly just wants to be hugged and to hug but who cannot yet let go of his
need to be as independent and strong as he once was. And we are continually intrigued by the egging of his alter,
younger self (Alex Stoll) to replay and keep alive the glories of his past self
and to avoid at all costs reliving the awful moments and truths of his
life-impacting injury. The depth
of performance of each of these actors is matched by the hard-hitting, sweating
football squad who are called on over and again to replay bits and pieces of
the past and who also transform with full grace and dignity into a dreamlike
ballet that allows surprising parallels to be drawn between two seemingly
disparate worlds (football and ballet).
As Colossal continues to march across America in its rolling premiere (next at Company One Theatre in Boston July 12 - August 15, 2015), it has
been accompanied this spring by two other world premiere plays in Berkeley and
Los Angeles also dealing with life-threatening and life-ending injuries
connected with football: X’s and O’s (A Football Love Story by KJ Sanchez and Jenny Mercein
at Berkeley Repertory Company – reviewed in an earlier post in Theatre Eddys) and Clutch by Shannon Miller at SkyPilot
Theatre Company. These three
timely and important plays are compared in a recent article of American Theatre that is well worth a read (http://www.americantheatre.org/2015/01/27/football-dramas-that-love-the-players-question-the-game/).
Theatre
is at its best when we as audience leave touched in our hearts, challenged in
our assumptions, and stimulated to continue the conversation and even to act on
what we have learned. Colossal
delves into several current issues of football while also exploring our
stereotypes of the players themselves as well as how we tend to see and treat
those different from us by race, sexual orientation, or physical abilities. In the end though, this is really a story
about bravery, forgiveness, and the love of a father and son; and it is at
those levels that the story leaves its lasting mark in the audience-goer’s
soul.
Rating: 5 E’s
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