New Zealand Herald, 19 September 2009, by Janet McAllister
This is the One About the Alcoholic - but it's less predictable or painfully emotional and far more entertaining than such a description promises.
As such, it fits nicely into Silo Theatre's line-up of comic dramas about young urban scenesters for young urban audiences. And happily, for the most part, Australian playwright Brendan Cowell takes the advice of his own characters: if you want to be a writer, you can't afford to be earnest.
The title character is an advertising creative, dragged to a meeting for alcoholics by his long-suffering mother (Ellie Smith) and Czech model girlfriend (Chelsie Preston Crayford, in colour-popping eyeshadow and spiky, avant-garde threads).
Boldly, Ruben Guthrie raises useful questions about the sacred cow of recovery programmes (depicting them as mind-controlling), while also taking a swipe at the "friends" who keep offering Ruben liquor.
The display of hard-drinking, nasty-minded and foul-mouthed advertising culture rings true, and shifting the action to Auckland works well. Local references - Karen Walker, Chesdale Cheese jingles - flow as fast as the Steinlager beer (which rises up on the bar in a halo of dry ice).
The best sly wink from Ruben (Oliver Driver) is about waking up bright and early when sober: "Paul and Pippa become your best friends."
Rather than, um, Sunrise co-host Oliver Driver?
Driver, showman that he is, fits the part like it was written for him. He has the energy and charisma to hold attention and sympathy for the two hours he's on stage, despite Ruben's unflagging egotism.
Shane Bosher's assured direction pulls the play off the page and gives it legs - especially in the suspiciously convincing drug binge scene - and he gets committed performances out of the fantastic cast.
Dean O’Gorman enjoys sashaying around as the fabulously gay best friend; tiny Smith mothering the gigantic Driver is endearingly funny; Toni Potter, like O’Gorman, doesn't flinch from nudity.
Many motivations are glossed over: we don't see why or how Ruben moves from reluctant to (relatively) converted programme participant, while the trigger for his heavy drinking - his guilt about a friend's suicide - is just too neat.
The ending also tries far too hard to tug at the heart strings. But still, this is a smart production of an engaging play.
Theatreview, 19 September 2009, by Nik Smythe
"Hello, my name is Ruben Guthrie and I'm in advertising"; scene one line one has the title character introducing himself at his initial 12 steps support group meeting. With all his nervous fidgeting and snappy talk, Ruben's like someone we've all met - at the far end of youth, a success story in the vice-ridden world of promotional media, tried everything twice and beginning to show the strain.
A particular wake-up call type incident has prompted this attempt to turn his self-destructive life around. He doesn't exactly embrace the idea wholeheartedly to begin with, not unpredictably thanks to that famous first stage of grieving, denial. As his first session wraps up Ruben tells the other participants it's been great to meet them and he'd really like to use them in something. It takes a greater shock, his Czech starlet model fiancé Zoya running home to Prague, to get Ruben to take the warning signs more seriously.
Once he commits to the therapy, almost half the play seems to consist of Ruben's closest male colleagues (father, boss, gay best friend) continually nagging him to get off his high horse, stop living in some sort of reverse denial and have a goddamn drink. Though he repeatedly declines, refuses, explains he doesn't want to and says no every way he can think of, they don't believe him let alone support or even respect his decision.
Australian playwright Brendan Cowell's latest play has been liberally adapted to exploit local geographic and pop-cultural references, which is essential to getting the audience to relate directly to the dialogue and therefore the characters. Each nostalgic jingle is distinctively Kiwi (Chesdale cheese, Weetbix etc), and it's not hard to transplant lines like Zoya's description of this 'alcoholic country' from Aussie to here.
Oliver Driver's rollercoaster ride of a lead performance is something of a tour-de-force. This young, fairly normal character not terribly unlike himself is put through the emotional wringer and back again, as the harrowed look in his face at the curtain call will attest.
The able supporting cast is equally up to their not-quite-so-severe tasks, carrying the two hours plus with admirable energy, humour and heart.
Ruben's boss Ray (Andrew Grainger) is your typical unscrupulous advertising bloke with all the class and decorum of a farmer at happy hour. Defiantly anti-metrosexual, Ray actually believes the sauce is fundamental to Ruben's success as the company's head copywriter. Dean O'Gorman plays gay workmate and best friend Damian, just as out of control but still indestructible - i.e. yet to experience enough loss to consider undertaking anything like Ruben's personal journey.
Chelsie Preston Crayford as Zoya is equal measures of class, forthrightness and spoiled brat, with a solid Eastern Europe accent to boot. Ruben's rebound love interest Virginia (Toni Potter) is one of those reformed addicts often referred to as 'the worst kind', unrelentingly driven to spread the word of the programme above all else. Her controlling agenda with Ruben's affairs smacks of a co-dependent streak taking the place of her previous addiction.
Ellie Smith's Susan, Ruben's mother, is the classically winsome lost housewife with passive-aggressive undertones, having spent her adult life married to Peter (Peter Elliot), an equally opposite stereotype of the Kiwi dad who's only known way of connecting with his son is completely pissed. Witness his fatherly advice: 'If you're going to drink and drive, do it in rush hour.'
There are no real new insights for anyone familiar with the prevalent issue, and who doesn't know a substance abuser or three here in Club New Zealand? The relentlessness and repetitiveness of all the struggles surrounding Ruben dealing with his disease and its impact on his family and friends leaves the story's intended message unclear, if there is one. Each side of everyone's point of view is examined, and there is no ultimate solution.
I detect a trend, unwitting or otherwise, in Silo's work over the past year or so, favouring tales of disaffected, alienated middle class executives in the urbane world of media and entertainment struggling to establish their purpose for living in the prevailing decadent culture of self-interest.
One notable effect: at the post-opening function I didn't feel in the least like drinking anything.
New Zealand Listener, 3 October 2009, by Catriona Ferguson
“Goodbye, red face!” yells spiky supermodel Zoya (an ele-gantly restrained Chelsie Preston Crayford) as she walks out on her fiancé, Ruben Guthrie, after finally losing patience with his alcoholic behaviour. Zoya’s departure is a rock bottom of sorts and Ruben, a high-flyer in the advertising business, realises it is time to get real about his drinking. But it soon becomes clear there is more to recovery than just putting the cork back in the bottle and turning up to a few AA meetings.
Australian playwright Brendan Cowell has been candid about his personal difficulties with alcohol – Ruben Guthrie is a response to his own year-long flirtation with abstinence. The play has been loosely translated into Kiwiese – sly jokes about Karen Walker and Pippa and Paul on breakfast TV are well placed – and with New Zealand’s drinking culture regularly making the headlines, it’s a timely piece of theatre.
Oliver Driver is charismatic and convincing as the twitchy, half-crazed Ruben, torn between addictive self-destructive behaviour and a desire for a life more meaningful. But the odds are against him. Dad (movingly played by Peter Elliott) is a drinking and unrepentant alcoholic determined to enjoy a glass of sav with his son. Mum (Ellie Guthrie) is a self-pitying, needy type happiest when all her ducks are in a drunken row – they’re more manageable that way. And his slimy boss (Andrew Grainger), an ex-drinker himself, also prefers Ruben on the sauce, fearing his highly bankable creative talents are too closely linked to drinking to survive recovery.
However, as Ruben takes it “one day at a time” and progresses further into the world of recovery, life starts to make sense, and although the inner workings of AA can probably be taken with a pinch of salt, his group of new friends provides support lacking elsewhere.
But Ruben is still raw, and when life starts to unravel, he doesn’t have the resilience to fight back – he falls fast and hard. A night of excess with another friend who prefers him off the wagon (a superbly camp Dean O’Gorman) is infectiously absurd, but suddenly there’s very little to laugh about.
Alcoholism as entertainment is tricky to pull off, but Cowell mostly gets it right. Behind the witty, ironic, punchy dialogue, there is compassion and understanding – Ruben is not a bad person, just a sick one doing the best he can to get well.
And sure, this is fiction, not autobiography, but it adds a note of poignancy that in a recent interview Cowell admitted to be possibly only “pretending to have a good relationship with alcohol”, all the while knowing that if he’s out for the night there’s still no such thing as “a few drinks”.
Blood Wedding ran from 9 May to 6 June 2009 at the Circa Theatre in Wellington.
Blood Wedding was written in 1932. The translation by English poet Ted Hughes was first produced by the Young Vic Theatre in London in 1996.
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photo: theatreview.org.nzMay, 2009, Circa Theatre, Wellington
Your wedding is supposed to be the biggest day of your life - but when your wedding includes a duel to the death you know the stakes are high.
Dean starred as Leonardo in Federico Garcia Lorca's play Blood Wedding in its first production on the professional stage in New Zealand at Circa Theatre in Wellington. The play opened on 9 May for a four-week run closing on 6 June.
"Blood Wedding is no ordinary love story; it is a fiery challenge to our senses of duty, honour and desire," says Circa Theatre's promotional material. "In the searing heat of the Spanish summer and set against the turbulent background of the era of the Spanish Civil War, a Bride prepares for her wedding. A wedding to unite a village destroyed by bitter infighting and man's desire to settle arguments with the knife. The return of her first love Leonardo forces the Bride to choose between her duty and the will of her heart. Their decision to escape on her wedding day sends shockwaves through the community and precipitates an inevitable and bloody act of vengeance.
"Award-winning director Willem Wassenaar (Angels in America, The Little Dog Laughed) helms a star-studded cast in his eagerly-awaited return to Circa Theatre, where he directed The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. With one of the best ensemble line-ups to share a stage in Wellington this year, the cast features Geraldine Brophy (Second Hand Wedding, Outrageous Fortune and Shortland Street's beloved Moira), Rachel Forman (Apollo 13: Mission Control, Turbine, Blackbird) and Dean O'Gorman (Toy Love, Shortland Street, Hercules). Rounding out the cast are Sophie Roberts, Peter Hambleton, Jade Daniels, Michele Amas and Carmel McGlone."
Set designer Andrew Foster created the dusty shimmer of a Spanish village square with a minimal set dominated by a ring of sand. The high-calibre production line-up also included one of New Zealand's greatest contemporary composers Gareth Farr promising a score of lavish Spanish song and dance, with choreography from Dancing with the Stars' Stefano Olivieri.
Thanks to Tony and theatreview.org.nz.
CAST
Rachel Forman : Bride
Geraldine Brophy : Mother
Dean O'Gorman : Leonardo
Jade Daniels : Groom
Michele Amas : Neighbour and Servant
Peter Hambleton : Bride's father
Carmel McGlone : Mother in Law, Death
Sophie Roberts : Leonardo's wife, Moon
Tai Berdinner Blades : Girl, Woodcutter
Ben Crawford : Young Man, Woodcutter
Joe Dekkers-Reihana : Young Man
Anna Harcourt : Girl, Woodcutter
CREW
Director : Willem Wassenaar
Composer : Gareth Farr
Set and Costume Designer : Andrew Foster
Lighting design : Natala Gwiazdzinski
Sound design, lighting operator : Thomas Press
Stage Manager : Pat McIntosh
Costume assistance/construction : Rebekah Coburn
Dramaturg : Jaime Dorner
Choreographer and movement advisor : Stefano Olivieri
Publicity : Phil Reed
Photography : Philip Merry and Andrew Kennedy
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The Eight: Reindeer Monologues played at The Basement in Auckland 4-19 December, 2008. Due to popular demand, three extra performances were scheduled for 10:00pm 17-19 December.
Dean has worked before on stage and in TV productions with fellow cast members Michael Hurst, Fleur Saville, Oliver Driver, Claire Chitham, and Madeleine Sami.
Dean's brother Brett O'Gorman also stars in The Eight. Whether the brothers will appear on stage together remains to be seen! |
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NEW ZEALAND HERALD REVIEW THEATREVIEW REVIEW
photo: basementspace.co.nzDecember, 2008, The Basement, Auckland
"(A) standout performance on opening night came from Dean O'Gorman who captured the bitchy self-absorption of a wannabe screen actor," said NZ Herald reviewer Paul Simei-Barton.
SEX. LIES. SANTA . . . You won’t know who you are going to see perform. And you’ll never look at Santa the same way again! With the North Pole toy workshop abuzz with gossip, Santa's eight reindeer decide to go public with some accusations, revealing to the world what Santa really gets up to when he is not sitting in shopping malls or delivering gifts. Forget happy elves and cute smiling reindeer; think instead of Dasher as a rugby jock; Cupid as a gay toy boy and Vixen as a doe with a tale to tell.
Forty actors will alternate over 14 performances turning The Eight: Reindeer Monologues into a huge Christmas cracker surprise - who knows who will pop out on stage next! Michael Hurst, Oliver Driver, Antonia Prebble, Claire Chitham, Sarah Wiseman, Shane Bosher, Madeleine Sami, Fleur Saville, Dean O'Gorman, Anna Jullienne will be supported by some of Auckland’s hottest new acting talent. Who will perform each night will not be advertised, but Directory Cameron Rhodes promises that on any given night, the cast will include "an exciting newcomer, an experienced theatre veteran, a television star, and a potluck addition."
Ordinarily each reindeer is portrayed by one actor for the entire season, requiring a cast of eight. Playwright Jeff Goode says there has been some double-casting in previous productions but it has never been on the scale undertaken by Director Rhodes and the Auckland production team. "This is the first time that doubling roles has been made a virtue of the production," he says. "I think it's very exciting, and it should work very well. What makes every production of The Eight unique is the motley band of characters each company assembles to represent the reindeer team. But the story does not turn on their specific character traits, so having an interchangeable cast will make it seem like a whole new show every night."
A sell-out success around the world since its premiere in 1993, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues is not the usual sugar-coated Christmas fare. Instead, audiences are invited to The Basement for some in-your-face seasonal merriment as this dark Christmas comedy sheds new light on Santa and his eight reindeer. Says Goode, "Unfortunately, the human foibles that the play is about never seem to go away. There are always scandals, and there are always people handling the scandals badly. And as long as that continues to be true, The Eight will probably always find an audience."
The Eight: Reindeer Monologues is coarse, witty, vulgar and crude and therefore intended for mature audiences only.
The Eight: Reindeer Monologues
Thursday 4 December to Friday 19 December, 8.00pm
No show Sundays
Thanks to thehive.co.nz and nzherald.co.nz
CAST
Shane Bosher
Claire Chitham
Oliver Driver
Michael Hurst
Anna Jullliene
Dean O'Gorman
Brett O'Gorman
Antonia Prebble
Madeleine Sami
Fleur Saville
Sarah Wiseman
and 30 more!
CREW
Director : Cameron Rhodes
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New Zealand Herald, 8 December 2008, by Paul Simei-Barton
Be warned: These reindeer are nothing like the cute creatures in the Disney movies and no amount of parental guidance could shield children from the scandalous debauchery described by Jeff Goode's wickedly funny vision of high times at the North Pole.
Since its American debut in 1994, the Reindeer Monologues has become an underground cult phenomenon that offers a raunchy antidote to sugary Christmas kitsch and obliquely targets the rapacious commercialism of the festive season.
As each of the eight reindeer named in Rudolph's song tell their stories, we are given a picture of a very bad Santa who stands accused of a bewildering assortment of sex crimes. The allegations of rape and molestation are presented in lurid detail with monologues resembling the narcissistic confession of the whack-jobs who appear on daytime talk-shows.
The humour is often outrageously tasteless but has a sharp satirical edge and cleverly speculates on how reindeer might view humans: several members of the sleigh team are appalled by Mrs Claus' passion for taxidermy and Dancer laments that no one appreciates the intricate tail-work of deer ballet.
Casting appears to be based on the All Blacks' ill-fated rotation policy with a different group of players taking the stage on each night of the season. But while Graham Henry's refusal to settle on a top team may have cost us the World Cup, the democratic impulse behind this strategy makes a lot more sense in the world theatre.
Forty actors at various stages in their careers are given the opportunity to strut their stuff in seriously juicy roles and as each night's cast list is a closely-guarded secret, the audience is kept guessing as to whether they will be seeing a veteran TV star or fresh-faced drama-school graduate.
With such a large cast some unevenness is to be expected but Director Cameron Rhodes keeps the energy levels pumping and encourages audience participation that is enhanced by cabaret-style seating with friendly bar service.
On opening night, standout performances came from Oliver Driver who nailed the straight-shooting machismo of Dasher the sleigh-team leader; Morgana O'Reilly who brought a manic edge to her portrayal of a reformed delinquent deer who won't hear a bad word about Saint Nick; and Dean O'Gorman who captured the bitchy self-absorption of a wannabe screen actor.
In keeping with the Christmas spirit proceeds from the production are going towards the purchase of a much-needed air-conditioning unit for the Basement theatre.
Theatrereveiw, 5 December 2008, by Nik Smythe
The crowd convenes at cabaret style round table seating festively adorned with colourful stencils of Santa and his reindeer. A simple stage resplendant with shiny lights on black curtain is where the action takes place, by which I really mean the various individual accounts of actions past by what tabloids refer to as 'inside sources', i.e. Santa's reindeer.
Extrapolating what we know from such famous rhymes and carols The Night Before Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and the perennial though more recent Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jeffe Goode's hilarious script takes these world famous loveable characters to darker places than we are used to seeing them in.
In brief, everything we thought we knew about Santa Claus and his faithful herd of sleigh-pullers ('The Eight'), not to mention his elves and his wife, is strongly alleged to conceal something far more insidious, corrupt and perverse. Santa himself ('the most powerful man in the world!') is facing serious charges of sexual violation against nubile young doe Vixen, and the deer themselves are divided on who is guilty and who the victims are.
The clever gimmick (as if that wasn't enough) is that each reindeer is alternately played each night by one of five actors, whom I gather offer dramatically distinctive takes on their respective roles. Under Cameron Rhodes' expert direction every performer opening night excelled in presenting their hilarious stereotypes. It's obvious they've had a lot of fun, which transfers exponentially to us, the audience.
Oliver Driver broke the ice as the self-important macho head buck Dasher, angry about the issues surrounding the lawsuit in question, and not a small amount bitter over the one singular time when Rudolf, total rookie and disadvantaged son to Donner, lead the herd on account of 'fog'...(Rudolf himself, often discussed throughout the eight monologues, doesn't appear - he's in a padded cell somewhere singing carols to himself.)
Todd Emerson's Cupid is an extreme contrast to Dasher: a drug addled gay porn hedonist, who's involvement with the case at hand is little or none but he's still got his opinion. As Prancer, renamed Hollywood on account of his aspirations, Dean O'Gorman offers a pretentious, ambitious wannabe grown bitter by the chain of events which has caused his alleged star quality to go all but uncelebrated.
The first doe to state her case is Blitzen, played by Nisha Madhan as an amiable cooking host, albeit dishing the dirt on the inherent perversion of the Christmas system and the people in it. She also quite rightly points out the denial parents who tell their children there is no Santa are clearly in...
The second half sees young Comet (Morgana O'Reilly) crashing in with her Destiny-esque hyper-evangelist pro-Santa rant. By Comet's own account Santa turned her life around when she was a troubled young delinquent, and his critics and accusers are simply ignorant. 'I guess being a living saint makes you a target for this sort of thing'.
Michelle Blundell's Dancer is a sleight wee ballerina harbouring some serious schizoid neuroses, and a particular dislike for Mrs Claus, who never does anything. Claire Chitham's Donner is another washed-up wastrel, clinging to her forty of whiskey and laconically lamenting what happened with her poor son Rudolf, the Vixen scandal, and basically everything about her miserable has-been life.
Finally the one we've been waiting for - the Plaintiff, Vixen (Bonnie Soper), seductive sultry glamourpuss. Her own story, by which she justifies threatening to bring the most well-loved icon of our time down into the dirt, isn't so much of a shocking reveal by the time we get to it - it seems more like a realistic analogy for any similar scandalous tabloid fiasco, only about a centuries old alcoholic and a flying deer.
So did Mr Saint Nicholas Claus commit the perverted atrocity of which he is accused? That'd be one for gossiping conspiracy theorists to obsess over for generations to come. Meanwhile, ho ho ho and behave this Christmas.
N.B.: The Basement is not a large theatre, and given the potential for people to go more than once to experience a different lineup, as well as any number of first timers attending on a whim or well-deserved recommendation, it's advisable to book early for this one folks.
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The Silo Theatre's production of Rabbit ran at the Herald Theatre in Auckland 20 March-12 April, 2008.
The (NZ) National Business Review calls the Silo Theatre "the most dynamic theatre in the country.”
English playwright Nina Raine's first play, Rabbit was originally staged in London in 2006 with Raine directing. The Guardian newspaper called it "a confident, promising debut."
Rabbit was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award, a biennial competition to find the best new play by an emerging writer in the UK. Raine won the Most Promising Playwright Charles Wintour Evening Standard Award in 2006.
Dean and fellow cast member Jodi Rimmer appeared together in the TV series Young Hercules in the 1990s. |
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THEATREVIEW REVIEW METRO LIVE REVIEW NEW ZEALAND HERALD REVIEW
photo: Metro {live}March, 2008, Silo Theatre, Auckland
Rabbit is "ferociously funny and tender with heartbreak," said Trafalger Studios of London during their production of the play.
"Dean O'Gorman is nicely understated as Bella's fish-out-of-water old flame Tom. He's a guy from finance surrounded by extroverts and you just know they are going to eat him alive," said Reviewer Shannon Huse of the New Zealand Herald.
Dean is part of an ensemble cast in the Silo Theatre's production of Rabbit, at the Herald Theatre in Auckland from 20 March through 12 April.
Bella is living, working, drinking, and loving in the 21st Century. And damn it to hell, she’s turning 29. None of her closest friends really know each other, but that hasn’t stopped her from assembling this gang of bright young things out to dinner for a celebration. As the booze flows and the festivities spiral out of control, this occasionally rancorous quintet bait and bite one another in an uncivil war of the sexes. Central Perk this ain’t.
But even as she toasts the skirmishes of contemporary love, Bella can’t help but face up to the confronting relationship she has with the one man in her life who has ever meant anything to her.
Told with merciless wit and explosive attitude, this lacerating black comedy probes the nature of identity, the elusiveness of memory and the emotional minefield of becoming an adult.
Play description from the Silo Theatre. Thanks also to Bith.
CAST
Claire Chitham : Bella
Peter Elliott : Father
Dean O'Gorman : Tom
Jodie Rimmer : Sandy
Madeleine Sami : Emily
Edwin Wright : Richard
CREW
Director : Oliver Driver
Music : Tama Waipara
Set Design : John Verryt
Lighting Design : Jeremy Fern
Costume Design : Zambesi
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