Writer’s Block
Wellington Performing Arts Centre, Wellington
03/03/2011 - 05/03/2011
Production Details
Insomniac Writer Faces Ultimate Deadline In Writer’s Block
Insomnia and depression are not generally thought of in comedy terms, but Wellington based actor and writer Thomas Rimmer’s new solo piece, Writer’s Block, deals with these very themes. The play explores a struggling writer’s descent into madness and is based on a poem written by Rimmer, which chronicals his own struggles with insomnia and depression.
“Although the poem is a lot darker than the play, I’ve tried to capture the feeling of solitude of the original piece and turn it in to a kind of tragic comedy,” Rimmer says. “They say ‘write about what you know’, and Writer’s Block deals with those darker, twisted aspects of my own mind.”
Rimmer has been living in Wellington for the past eleven years and began acting professionally in 2003, mainly in theatre but also in various film and television projects. Although he’s been writing for many years, Writer’s Block is the first of Rimmer’s plays to be produced.
Rimmer has enlisted the skills and talents of Canadian-born director Alec Wheeler to take his play from the page to the stage. Wheeler has been busy dividing her time between Writer’s Block and her current position as Programme & Partnerships Manager for Young and Hungry Arts Trust.
Also, lending her talents as Lighting and Sound Technician, is Julia Campbell, a Wellington-based freelance video artist who has a large amount of Fringe experience.
Writer’s Block
Wellington Fringe Festival 2011
Whitireia Performing Arts Centre, 25-27 Vivian Street
3rd-5th March at 7.30 pm
plus 5th March at 3.00pm
Tickets $12, $10 unwaged
Book at www.wpac.org.nz or phone 0800 WHITIREIA (0800 944 847)
Actor’s showcase rather than dynamic narrative
Review by Phoebe Smith 04th Mar 2011
Written and performed by Thomas Rimmer, Writer’s Block is a solo show that explores the madness that one can be driven to through insomnia, self-doubt, self-medication and a deadline. While aspects of the play, including its confident performance, are commendable, elements of this madness are all too available to the audience’s psyches who may also end up wishing to self-medicate.
The concept of a script about a writer who is blocked and suicidal that is performed by the actual writer is potentially problematic in its line between truth and representation. Here Rimmer attempts to acknowledge and disperse this concern through fourth-wall breaking comments such as, “…the only thing worse than that, are those guys who write and perform in their own solo shows… ’cause they can’t get any other work…” (quoted from memory…).
This isn’t enough. Writer’s Block is an often repetitive journey through the imaginary Dick Pratt who maybe, today(?), wants to kill himself. One can’t help but feel that one is, at least partially, watching Thomas Rimmer as Thomas Rimmer.
Rimmer is a confident and capable performer. He is vocally and physically interesting and malleable to the extent that he can create a variety of roles and voices within a one-minute scene without ever leaving his audience confused. Unfortunately, this quality in conjunction with the repetitive script gives this piece the tone of an actor’s showcase rather than a dynamic narrative.
Julia Campbell’s technical efforts, which seem to include all sound, lighting and possibly set, are successful – with the disco-light transition into ‘mental imagery’ scenes being a particularly effective device – though the ‘messy flat’ set gives nothing new to its own genre and could be simpler or more complex to better effect.
Though the script is an endurance-test at times, it also makes it clear that Rimmer should not be so unfortunate in his auditions as an actor.
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