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Does "Colossal" Score?

Stan Barouh

Just in time for football season, the Olney Theatre Center is presenting a play called "Colossal" about a college football player whose career was sidelined. Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck was in the stands this week, and brings us this review.

The Rousuck Review: "Colossal" 

I’m not going to give into the temptation to use a lot of sports metaphors to talk about “Colossal” -- Olney Theatre Center’s dynamic world premiere, set on and off the college football field.

What playwright Andrew Hinderaker has done is too creative, distinctive, nuanced and, yes, even elegant to be limited by the clichés of sports jargon.

The conflicting worlds that the Chicago-based playwright explores are evident as soon as you enter Olney’s intimate, black box theater. At one end of the playing space, there’s a row of gym lockers; at the other end, there’s a mirror and ballet barre.

But what strikes you most immediately is the grunting, pounding football practice taking between these walls, with the pace set by a whistle-blowing coach and a loud, recorded drum corps.

Then you notice a modern dancer, also warming up and wending his way through the charged players. Finally, there’s the scoreboard overhead. Like a football game, “Colossal” takes place in four 15-minute quarters, counted down on the scoreboard. The structure is ingenious.

The practice ends, the first quarter begins and suddenly the action freezes. A man enters in a wheelchair, holding a remote control. This is the protagonist, Mike, intensely played by Michael Patrick Thornton, for whom the part was written. A former college star, Mike watches and re-watches the tape that shows his younger self sustaining his career-ending, life-altering injury.

“Colossal” offers a devastating, inescapable commentary on the dangers football players face. The young, still able-bodied Mike – played by an outstanding, gutsy Joseph Carlson – lists just some of his scrapes while he ices down a teammate.

But “Colossal” is as much about emotional injuries as physical ones. Mike is a gay athlete in love with a closeted teammate. Mike’s father is an acclaimed modern dancer. He groomed his son for the same artistic career -- as Thornton’s older Mike explains to his physical therapist, played by James Whalen. 

No football game would be complete without a half-time show. In “Colossal,” the half-time show is a dance performed by football players and led by Mike’s father, who’s portrayed with deeply expressive movement by Steve Ochoa. As the athletes, and then young Mike and his dad, execute leaps and lifts, they reinforce the connection between sport and art, father and son.

The muscular choreography is by Christopher D’Amboise, a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, combined with fight choreography by Ben Cunis. The direction by Will Davis – himself a former dancer and choreographer -- navigates and unifies the play’s many varied paths.

“Colossal” is the part of the National New Play Network and will have subsequent “rolling world premieres” in Minneapolis, Dallas and New Orleans. The new plays that have come here through this network have been some of the most vibrant, exciting work Olney has produced.

There are still things to be worked out in “Colossal”: Why, for example, is a score -- 14 to 7 -- posted on the scoreboard at the end? And, in some of the scenes between Mike and his older self, the interaction with the other characters isn’t always clear. 

But most of this innovative, skillfully crafted play is already in place. Furthermore, “Colossal” comes at a time when football is under intense scrutiny from several quarters. Playwright Hinderaker deftly weaves themes of familial and romantic love together with physical and emotional courage, defiance and pride. The result is a brave, fresh, tenacious look at America’s most impassioned sport.

-- J. Wynn Rousuck
“Colossal” continues at Olney TheatreCenter through October 5.

J. Wynn Rousuck has been reviewing theater for WYPR's Midday (and previously, Maryland Morning) since 2007. Prior to that, she was the theater critic of The Baltimore Sun, where she reviewed more than 3,000 plays over the course of 23 years.
Jamyla Krempel is WYPR's digital content director and the executive producer of Wavelength: Baltimore's Public Radio Journey. She collaborates with reporters, program and podcast hosts to create content for WYPR’s online platforms.