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“Gesundheit,” says Toby Schmitz aka Ruben Guthrie to a sneezing audience member as he settles into the plush, designer chair in the middle of the upstairs stage of Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre. It’s an immediate indication of the assured confidence and playful wit that oozes out of every pore of this production that’s blessed on a dizzying array of levels.
For those of you who have been hiding under a rock on a planet a zillion light years away from anything that remotely resembles intelligent life, this is the play that Sydney’s theatre set have been waiting for since… well, since it finished its phenomenal run on the downstairs stage 12 months ago. While I’m sad to say that I wasn’t there to witness its birth (thanks mostly to the fact that scoring a seat was akin to finding a golden ticket in a Willy Wonka chocolate bar) I think it’s safe to say it’s been well worth the wait.
Featuring a cracking, rapid-fire script by Brendan Cowell that leaps off the page with a sparking wit and intelligence that is both funny and insightful, the action revolves around one Ruben Guthrie, ad man extraordinaire, who we meet at the pinnacle of his success, and excess. For while Ruben has been making waves in the advertising industry as a brilliant creative who could sell sand to the Sahara, he’s also become a hopeless drunk. But thanks to an epiphany, brought on by a spectacular accident while off his head on an outlandish bender, that’s all about to change. The next five acts see Ruben confront his demons and discover his life, and the core relationships in it, with fresh eyes when he tries to go straight.
Toby Schmitz is supremely comfortable in the skin of Guthrie, and while he tackles the comedy with the greatest of ease he’s also able to give himself over to the darker places, creating a complex, layered performance that’s polished but without any of the predictability that could so easily have come with that. Adrienne Pickering is laugh-out-loud hilarious as Guthrie’s Eastern European model girlfriend Zoya, who abandons him on his journey inward in the opening moments of the play. Roy Billing is spot on as Ray, the advertising executive who wants Ruben to perform at any cost, and the playful moments between him and Schmitz when they break into nostalgic advertising jingles are among the most charming and memorable.
Geoff Morrell is outstanding as Guthrie’s seemingly functional-alcoholic father Peter. Here’s an actor who boggles the mind with his ability to permeate a play with his presence in a minimal amount of stage time, and the father-son dynamic between him and Schmitz is touchingly heartfelt. Torquil Neilson injects the proceedings with an effervescent energy as Guthrie’s wayward mate who is determined to see him come crashing off the wagon one way or another.
Megan Drury is unflinchingly cunning and manipulative as Virginia, Guthrie’s AA sponsor and smothering new soul mate; while Toni Scanlan rounds out the cast perfectly as his no-nonsense mother, who is quietly ashamed by the stigma that comes with having a son who won’t continue the charade of “normality”.
Director Wayne Blair unites all the elements of Cowell’s play with a firm hand and assuredness that knows when to back off and when to take it up a notch, although, I was less fond of the harrowing moments when the action reaches it full-blown crescendo. Perhaps that’s because the fluidity of the performances in the earlier acts seems to rest uncomfortably beside them. But this is a play that demands bold stylistic choices in key points to drive home its message and Blair does not shy away from making them.
Ruben Guthrie boldly, bravely and hilariously tackles territory that cannot fail to amuse and affect. I, for one, am seriously considering a period where I “lay off the sauce”, not because the play has shocked me, like some kind of clumsy government scare campaign, but simply because I was so impressed by what Cowell’s own self-imposed year of sobriety yielded as a result – this play – which is among the finest you could hope to see on the Sydney stage this year.
Company B presents
Ruben Guthrie
by Brendan Cowell
Directed by Wayne Blair
Venue: Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills
Dates: 28 May – 5 July
Times: Tuesday 6.30pm, Wednesday to Friday 8pm, Saturday 2pm & 8pm, Sunday 5pm.
Tickets: Full $56. Seniors (excluding Fri/Sat evenings) and Groups 10+ $46. Concession $34
Student Rush $25 for Tuesday 6.30pm and Saturday 2pm, available from 10am on the day (subject to availability)
Bookings: 9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au
