Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Jason Watkins, Jonas Armstrong, Claire Skinner, David Bradley, David Mumeni, Joe Barber, Matilda Firth, Darren Strange, Kayla Meikle, Adrienn Réti, Craige Els, Caroline Boulton, Dan Code, Anita Major, Ralph Berkin, Sagar Arya, Kwadwo Kwateng, Shila Bentley.
For the majority of us, avoiding conflict is a day to day occupation, we have turned our eyes away from the bullying and intimidation on our streets, and the wonder why cannot face the moral questions of the massacre of a people a few thousand miles away; one action is a direct response to the suffering on any scale…we don’t wish to get involved lest the eyes of evil in all its forms fall upon us and we become the next target.
We cannot hope to solve the international if we cannot put a stop to the aggression and damage on the streets surrounding our home. The impunity in which some of our society, home grown, full of rage and despair have come to believe that their purpose in life is to bring misery to others, to intimidate them into bending to their will can be traced back throughout time as having nothing else to do. Let down by the system, abandoned by government, it feels that the youth of our country is a collective walking Coma, and we have done nothing to aid them to find a better way.
Written by Ben Edwards and directed by Michael Samuels, Coma is a searing indictment on just how we have lost the ability to stand up to the bully in all their forms and ways, and it is our fault.
Terrorised by a young man, a boy in all but name, Simon Henderson, played with insightful anxiety and unexpected rile by the ever sublime Jason Watkins, hits back.
This is not a tale of revenge, but of response, one born of fear and the feeling of failure, of just wanting everything around him to be fair as he struggles with the dominance of overwhelming factors.
It takes a second to set in motion the sense of dominoes falling to create havoc, and for Simon, havoc and terror comes in the form of one lucky punch and the escalation and fall out of dealing with a family renowned for their own temper and anger. It is in this that the viewer cannot but help but side with Simon and his family, even though as representation he is us as we all turn that blind eye just in case the beatings rain down on us next.
The story is incredibly well paced, it draws on the tension with conviction, and with stunning performances by Jonas Armstrong, David Bradley, David Mumeni, Claire Skinner, and Jason Watkins, Coma is the tale we deserve, Coma is the result of our own inability to deal with issues we believe have nothing to do with us.
Ian D. Hall