By Kenneth Lonergan
Directed by Denis Moore
With Daniel Frederiksen, Tim Potter, Christopher Kirby & Eryn-Jean Norvill
Set: Shaun Gurton
Lighting: Danny Pettingill
Stage Mangaer: Olivia Crockford
Lobby Hero (June 10 – July 11)
Kate Herbert, Herald Sun 26/06/09
THERE is something profoundly moving about Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero. Four people struggle to live according to their own moral code. How do we decide what is right and wrong, how to serve ourselves while not damaging others, or how to make the best of what we are given?
The Oscar-winning screenwriter sets his play over several nights in the lobby of a block of flats in a US city. Jeff (Tim Potter), the night security guard, waits for his boss William (Christopher Kirby) to visit on his rounds. Bill (Daniel Frederiksen), a cop, and his rookie partner Dawn (Eryn-Jean Norvill) drop by each night.
Lonergan’s script is beautifully crafted with sensitive, funny and vividly observed dialogue. Each character springs to life fully drawn, complete with complexities, contradictions and mistakes.
Denis Moore’s production balances comedy with drama and creates deceptively simple rhythms in both the story and characters.
Shaun Gurton’s design provides two stark spaces: the grey lobby and a cage-like exterior doorway.
Potter is on stage for almost the entire two hours, and he is riveting, capturing Jeff’s humour and his dilemma when faced with telling the truth about his friend’s lie.
As William, the fine, upstanding citizen who takes seriously his role of security captain, Kirby is dignified and captivating. His entire physicality embodies the anguish that William experiences as he faces his demons and tries to protect his family.
Frederiksen as Bill has the brittle quality of a grimy, jaded street cop accustomed to getting his own way. He is smarmy, dangerous and fiercely loyal – when his friends play his game.
Norvill captures the dogged ambition of Dawn. She is desperate to be a good cop, but who can tell whether her actions were on the side of the angels?
Nothing is simple in this life; it is riddled with moral choices.
Lobby Hero (June 10 – July 11)
Kate Rose, Sunday Herald Sun 21/06/09
JEFF has had some tough times. Maybe one could call it bad luck, but that’s avoiding personal responsibility.
Still, it’s been average.
Going into the navy to impress his father, who stopped talking to him after he was booted out, he’s got a bit of debt and he’s slumming it on his brother’s couch, but it’s going to get better.
His lucky break came when he got a security gig in an apartment building under William, a man who has pulled himself up by the bootstraps.
The two are begrudgingly becoming friends and William’s getting the promotions, Jeff’s getting out of debt.
But it’s all threatened when the police start visiting. William is facing a significant moral dilemma that could see him go against every principle he has had since crawling out of the mean streets.
Jeff wants to help his friend, but finds himself falling in love with the one person who could threaten it all and the friends have to start making some serious decisions.
Red Stitch regular Tim Potter is perfect as the nervous, uncomfortable, cheeky Jeff, encapsulating the entire character in his fingers’ nervous twitch or hangdog expression.
The physical juxtaposition between him and co-star Christopher Kirby (William) is used to great effect in the scenes between the two
Daniel Frederiksen and Eryn-Jean Norvill round out Lobby Hero’s four-person cast with their deft interplay.
The play is a dark, funny piece from Kenneth Lonergan, Oscar-nominated scriptwriter of You Can Count On Me.
It’s filled with black humour and questions about loyalty, family, power and truth that’s engaging from start to finish, even if the ending feels a little like it’s been constructed as a bittersweet feel-good.
Overall, it’s a small gripe about a polished piece.
Lobby Hero (June 10 – July 11)
Martin Ball, The Age 15/06/09
QUESTIONS of moral integrity can arise in the most innocuous situations. In Kenneth Lonnergan’s neat comedy Lobby Hero, the four imperfect characters are simply going about their daily routines in a Manhattan apartment building when they are thrust into dilemmas that aren’t of their making.
The comedy lies in watching characters wrestle with ethical problems that are ultimately beyond their moral intellects.
But a certain humanity emerges, too, because while they generally make a hash of things, they somehow stumble through the moral minefield, albeit with a few scars.
The first half is a treat, and though the second half is a bit overwritten and finally mawkish, there’s a nice balance to the whole.
Denis Moore’s production evidences some of his best direction for Red Stitch, and also benefits from strong performances, particularly Tim Potter’s nerdy security officer Jeff, the “lobby hero” of the title.
Potter delights in portraying the paradoxical nervy and cheeky aspects of Jeff’s character.
It would be easy to overdo the mannerisms — and a few Woody Allen moments do slip out — but for the most part, Potter brings nuance and depth to Jeff’s personality.
There is good verbal and physical comedy between Potter and Christopher Kirby, who plays Jeff’s boss William.
The more emotional relationship between Jeff and police recruit Dawn, played by Eryn-Jean Norvill, is nicely developed by effective tone and timing. Daniel Frederiksen completes the quartet of actors with another solid performance.
Shaun Gurton’s design is almost comically Spartan, with stark whites and blacks commenting ironically on the very grey moral landscape.