The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Opening Night: January 8, 2014
Closing: February 9, 2014
Theater: Atlantic Stage Two
In this stage adaptation of Alan Sillitoe’s classic short story, award-winning British playwright Roy Williams brings the young, defiant Colin Smith into the 21st century. Colin, with few prospects in life, finds himself in a prison school for criminal activity. He turns to long distance running as an escape, only to have the school exploit him for his talent, offering him a possible way out. Will he run his race for them, or for his independence?
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January 22, 2014
A sense of isolation seems an unlikely affliction for the protagonist of the new stage adaptation of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner the story by Alan Sillitoe that was made into a classic 1962 British movie. As portrayed by a dynamic Sheldon Best in Roy Williams’s contemporary rewrite, at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Stage 2, the disaffected Colin bounces around the stage with a buoyant energy that’s matched by his assertiveness and his verbal agility. Far from being a moody sort festering with grievances against a culture determined to put him in a box, this Colin seems to have enough drive to punch his way through any barriers.
READ THE REVIEWJanuary 27, 2014
Playing Colin Smith in the Atlantic Theater Company’s version of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner must be one of the most calorie-burning roles Off Broadway. As Colin, a 17-year-old prisoner with seemingly no cardiovascular limits, actor Sheldon Best (Sucker Punch) spends much of the show either sprinting or jogging in place. Even when he’s not running, Colin (pronounced ”Colon”) fights, steals, argues, seduces — all with tremendous volume and verve.
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January 22, 2014
When British author Allan Sillitoe’s short story of a working class petty thief who mentally escapes from the bleakness of his future through the comfort of running was published in 1959, it was recognized as a product of his country’s Angry Young Man period of literature and drama. But while Sillitoe and his class-conscious contemporaries were all white men writing about their fellow white men, black British playwright Roy Williams has adapted The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner into a contemporary stage piece that re-imagines the central character to allow audiences to see the story as a reflection of current racial issues.
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