The Coma Skate Rink will exchange its never-ending 70s disco nightmare of sweat and tears for more classical pain over the next eight weeks.
Twenty tons of dirt and a $10,000 Coma arts grant from the Coma town council will transform the dreary space into a Roman field of war for the original “action-drama” play ‘Colosseum.’
Shane Darvish, who wrote and will direct the production, previously led the Coma Players’ productions of ‘Cats’ and ‘Our Town,‘ although the later was struck by tragedy.
“It’s improv that is generally based on Russell Crowe and Spartacus movies and featuring adolescents,” Darvish said about his latest production.
While improv is usually reserved for comedy troupes, Darvish has set his sights higher.
“I said to myself, ‘Darvish what can we do for the children–specifically, non-athlete, non-academic kids?'” Darvish said about the genesis of the production. “They need life skills and there really aren’t any skills more critical to surviving this world than the ability to feign fight sequences in an imaginary colosseum.”
Not everyone was excited.
“I like a good Russell Crowe fight sequence as much as the next guy but the way I see it you either do sports or you are a nerd,” said Jax Owen, a local parent. “No one needs a coliseum for some kind of non-athletic non-nerds and the idea that they’d be entertaining is laughable.”
Darvish’s future plans for the coliseum include a possible turn as a puppet theater which is a contingency of his arts grant.
“Hopefully we can move my peaceful puppeteers into this thunderdome-like coliseum–once my puppeteers learn to keep from forcing themselves on their puppets, of course,” Mayor Dave Anderson said.
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I think we can all agree that a puppet based gladiator musical is the answer.