Saturday, September 13, 2014

Colossal Scores Early and Often at Olney


The timing of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere production of Colossal could not be better.  The play is about football (the new season has just begun); it’s about a gay male player dealing with the macho world of organized sports (the journey of openly gay football player Michael Sam has caught the nation’s attention); football injuries (constantly in the news); and it’s about love and family (always timely).   #hocoarts

Photo by Stan Barouh
Colossal, written by Andrew Hinderaker, makes its debut at the Olney Theatre Center before the new play appears in three other venues in the country.  Director Will Davis guides the talented all-male cast with great skill accentuating the physicality of football and dance and how these conflicting elements can sometime be fused.  The visuals are as much a part of this unconventional play as the dialogue.

If a set could define a production, Micha Kachman’s design clearly does.  Olney’s Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab was converted into a miniature football stadium consisting of four rows of grandstand seating the length of and on opposite sides of the black-box stage with an overhanging electronic scoreboard and functional clock.  The latter is used to denote the play’s structure that contains 15-minute quarters, a pre-game and a halftime and is a metaphor for how the time in our lives is precious and finite.  There is also a dance barre and mirror at one end and lockers on the opposite end.
For full review, visit MD Theatre Guide.

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