Fully Committed - Review

Fully Committed
by Becky Mode
Brevity Theatre Company in association with
Sydney Independent Theatre Company
Old Fitzroy Theatre
Wolloomooloo

Work to pay for your career

credit: Brevity Theatre Company
Reviewed by Benjamin Oxley
Fully Committed - a play on the theatrical term for deeply in character, and a PC phrase for a full house at a restaurant - is much more than a one-man show. It allows the physical and vocal talents of Nick Curnow to stretch the gamut of Transatlantic vignettes. It tells the story of Sam, who takes the reservations for an over-priced Manhattan dining establishment. His dilemma is universal - how to escape from his post at Christmas to be with his newly-widowed dad.

With a dank office as his habitat, Sam is beset by cranky callers, high brow and hysterical, all bent on landing the plum spot at dinner. Lunch has its own concerns, as he attempts to balance the service demands of chef, maitre-d. and all those callers. It gets so frenetic that Sam is called on to double as toilet cleaner, after all others have grossed out at the diner's debacle.

It is enough that the role encompasses nigh on 40 characters, director Alexander Butt finds room for Curnow to work between the phone, the tannoy and the chef's personal line. Oh, and Sam's mobile phone that represents his life away from drudgery. Perhaps a telco could support this venture?

Nick Curnow is highly sought after for his talent and knowledge as a voice actor, is experienced in voice over narration and ADR, can differentiate between New York and New England, Liverpool and Lancashire, give you a Texan or a Russian, a Kiwi or Latino, or anyone else you might need. My favourite voice was Mrs Sebag, a distraught New York Jewess desperate for a table.

Praise too for the work from the control desk: split-second timing to match Curnow, placing the myriad sound effects on beats of musical bars. Benjamin Brockman's strobe-effected lighting created a suggestion of power overload at the climaxes, channelling the storytelling into a spiraling vortex.

After the call to Sam's father to ... you need to be there and see it for yourself. And if you are like me, you'll be pleased it's a theatre pub, so you can catch your breath and have a much needed drink.

Wittenberg by David Davalos - Review

What a brilliant start to the year. This production by the Brevity Theatre Company in association with the Sydney Independent Theatre Company could well be one of the highlights in theatre for 2014. It is written by David Davalos who has won several awards for this work. I am not surprised as the dialogue, which is the most important part of this play, is technical, clever and realistic, plus Hamlets role is written in the style of Shakespearean verse.

The play is set in Wittenberg University, Germany in 1517.  Prince Hamlet (Alexander Butt) has got to the point in his education where he has to choose his major. Two lecturers do battle to try to influence Hamlet to make a decision and major in their subject.  Enter, Dr John Faustus (David Woodward) who has four doctorates. One of them is in Philosophy and another in Medicine. These two feature heavily in the play, as he spends his time either arguing and discussing the meaning of life, the universe and the Bible or fixing peoples minor ailments. He has a small medicine cabinet full of interesting herbs and pills from exotic places. Then there Martin Luther (Nick Curnow) who won't have a bad word said about God or the Bible. His whole world is in the Bible and spars constantly with Faustus.

This sounds like it would be a very dry play but it is not at all. It is is full of quotes from Shakespeare, the modern day an probably more.  It is a play where you will find yourself hanging off every word because you don't want to miss something.  It is a play where you will either want to go back and see it again or read the script yourself. Finally, it will also make you think about the Bible and what it says, you may even want to pick up a copy and start reading it, if you don't already.