Valkyrie at the Roller Disco
By Seamus Sullivan
Seamus Sullivan
Seamus Sullivan is a proud Flying V company member whose shows for the company include Incurable, Science Fiction Double Feature, and Me and the Devil Blues. He also works with Sacred Fools in Los Angeles and co-wrote the upcoming web series Titus and Dronicus, which is about Shakespearean detectives. He lives in LA.
Based on “Ballad of a Comeback Kid” by The New Pornographers
Reina: First things first- your roller derby name?
Seamus: Right now I’m torn between Mark Pain and LeVar Hurtin’.
Reina: Talk to me about how this play came out of your assigned song… besides the obvious.
Seamus: The first few times I listened to “Valkyrie in the Roller Disco” it sounded like a breakup song sung by someone who was still hoping that maybe it would turn out not to be a breakup song, which seemed poignant and full of dramatic potential. I started brainstorming the play not knowing if it would be about two people breaking up or finding the moxie to stay together. And then it felt appropriately Flying V to play the title literally and have one half of the couple be an actual Valkyrie. The roller derby idea grew out of 1). the title, 2). the fact that roller derby is awesome, 3). the idea that roller derby is something an off-duty Valkyrie would be into, and 4). roller derby as a metaphor for serious relationships, where it’s a full contact sport and you have to throw yourself into it and risk getting knocked around if you want to play. SUBTLETY!!!
Reina: If you were going to date a being from mythology, who/what would it be and why?
Seamus: One True Pairing: Scheherazade. My real-life girlfriend’s a brilliant writer and storyteller, so I’ve got a type.
One Night Stand: I’ve had a longtime literary crush on Circe, the sorceress from the Odyssey. Maybe because she has magical powers that she uses to dominate people? Is this oversharing? Probably?
Biggest Clusterfuck: Diana, Virginal Goddess of the Hunt. If you see her naked she will turn you into a deer and then have your own hunting dogs eat you. Best case scenario, we ghost each other after Date 2.
Netflix and Chill: One of those nine-tailed shapeshifter foxes from Chinese mythology, because they’re tricksters and therefore probably good at Netflix commentary.
Reina: How often do you use music in your writing?
Seamus: Dude, so much! Incurable, my first show with Flying V, had a recurring Pixies motif. Me and the Devil Blues was about Robert Johnson. The heroine of this horror play I’m working on is an aspiring singer-songwriter who is stuck in an office job and looks to Fugazi for spiritual guidance. I admire the hell out of musicians because they do something creative but are universally recognized as being cooler than writers. And they do something that requires ungodly amounts of practice and technical skill. I tried to learn to play guitar when I was fifteen. It’s crazy hard!
