Last night I had the opportunity to see a captivating new play by Lawrence Jones “Lions in the Coliseum” which was performed at the School of the Art’s (SOTA) Black Box Theater. A friend, Brad Files, performed as one of the leads.  The story takes place in a Donut Shop in Buffalo. The play plays heavily on that location, and all things Buffalo, including the ever present Buffalo Bills.   The cast of 7 seven all did an excellent job bringing their characters to life, and now that I have seen Brad act, I regret my missed opportunities to have seen him in other performances in the past.   He definitely brought his character to life.

The play itself, like life in a donut shop, touched on numerous topics.  A primary theme of the play involves football and the emergence of the diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).  So this is not a laugh a minute performance and does take on much more serious subjects.

The author and the actors did an excellent job fleshing out each of the characters   Meaning they easily appeared as full fledged people and not just paper cut outs.   Mr. Jones puts a lot of information into his work, and at times, it appeared that in order to give that information, some characters may have appeared to monologue a bit. However that information was important.  Mr. Files had the job of delivering many of those lines, and did so, so it seemed like just part of a normal conversation.  The fact that the play takes place in its setting over multiple days and times allowed Mr. Jones an opportunity to have his characters interact and discuss many different issues.  It also allowed the  characters to grow as  people and  for the audience to see relationships grow and change over time, and to see how the characters grew and changed based on earlier events.   While Mr. Jones’ characters appeared fully fleshed, the one issue that could have been fleshed out more is the daughters relationship with the priest. As an audience member it was unclear how he got involved. Once he was there,  however,  it was carried off well.  That little bit of back story would have been helpful.  It could easily be dealt with by having the waitress obviously wear a cross for example, or by posting a flier raising money for the Church.

The play itself could easily have been split into two acts.  There is an obvious scene that could have ended the first act,  involving the owner of the coffee shop.  There is some nice acting and lines leading up to that scene that helped build the tension leading to that moment.  The second act, as such, was very enjoyable and ended well, but lacked some of the dramatic tension found in the first act,  as such.

Overall this was an excellent play and performance, and all involved should be commended.  We attended with a friend, who is a season ticket holder, to a college football team.  We knew the play was a success, when we talked about the issues raised in the play the whole drive home, and the three of us still carried on our conversation for several minutes after we drove to her house to drop  her off.

You still have a chance to see the final performance at this years Fringe Festival. “Lions at the Coliseum” is performed Saturday at 3 p.m. at the RAPA/School of the Arts location.

© Words Dan DeMarle 2016
The featured image is from the play's printed material.