Ruben Guthrie by Brendan Cowell.
Directed by Ryan Street.
Assistant director Annabelle
Hansen, Producer Fiona Xu, Stage Manager Ro McPhee, Choreographer Amy McDonald,
Props Ro McPhee and Annabelle Hansen, Photographer and videographer Jeremy
Tsuei ,Sound
design Ryan Street, Lighting design Ryan Street and Fiona Xu, Lighting
technician and Graphic design Fiona Xu, Sound technician Ro McPhee, Video
editing Ro McPhee and Ryan Street. Cast: Sam Collingwood
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Maxine Eayrs as Virginia. Simon Collingwood as Ruben |
The secret to a successful launch of a new theatre company is to choose a play with real grit and a cast that is wedded to the characters and their circumstances, a director with a mission and a receptive audience that feels involved. Wander Theatre’s production of Brendan Cowell’s has all this in a most impressive debut at ACT HUB. Ruben Guthrie is a modern parable about the evils of addiction and alcohol in particular. It is also a warning 0f the causes and consequences of reliance on alcohol consumption.. Ruben Guthrie (Simon Collingwood) is a brilliant creative director of a top notch advertising agency, Subliminal, run by advertising executive Ray (Richard Manning.) Success and wealth deal Guthrie a cocktail of booze and daredevilry when he tries to fly and falls off a hotel balcony. We meet him when the play opens with his arm in a sling, a bandaid across his forehead and his ego somewhat bruised but not beaten. After all, he is the invincible Ruben Guthrie with his fast cars, his flash apartment and his beautiful Czech supermodel Soya (Grace Fletcher) on his arm at all the big events.
Director Ryan Street sets his
action between audience on two sides of the stage, subtly involving them as participants in an AA meeting and later a
Home Group run by the no nonsense hard
truth hitting Virginia (Maxine Eayrs). However, it is only when Soya decides to
leave Guthrie and return home to Europe that Guthrie promises to abstain from
alcohol for a year in order to win Soya
back. This is goal targeted therapy and an open door to temptation from boss
Ray, advertising mate Damian (Mischa Rippon), recently returned from New York
and his alcoholic father (Anthony Mayne) It is further complicated by his
relationship with Virginia. Adele Lewin completes the scenario with her
portrayal of Guthrie’s mother, obstinately in denial of her son’s addiction and
fraught with the feelings of helplessness as Guthrie eventually descends into a
self-destructive spiral.
Under Street’s purposeful
direction, the production assumes an inevitability that provides the
opportunities for redemption but is thwarted by the force of the addiction. In
a final image set in the hospital Cowell ‘s relentless prophesy reveals a
spectre of doom if the messages of hope are ignored. We are left to seriously
question the efficacy of therapy and social intervention, when at every turn
Guthrie is confronted by the power of temptation, revealed with chilling
realism in the scene between Damian and Guthrie as he succumbs again to the
euphoria of his addiction. If the fall from the roof was not enough, nor the
loss of his true love, then Wander Theatre’s portrayal of Guthrie’s sacrificial
fall and its deadly consequence should send shockwaves through anyone teetering
perilously on the precipice of addiction.
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| Anthony Mayne as Dad. Simon Collingwood as Ruben |