Seminar

Here’s a fine, sparky 2011 Broadway play that has slipped through the STC/MTC net and been snaffled by an alert Ensemble programming team. Theresa Rebeck’s fizzing dialogue keeps the audience alert throughout a 100-minute discussion on writers and the modern novel.

Set and direction are first rate, and the excellent 5-actor ensemble shows the Ensemble at its best. Up very close and personal, these actors give tense, truthful, often very funny performances, revelling in the crisp New York exchanges, plot twists and character surprises.

Four young, aspiring novelists have each paid $5000 for a 10-week seminar with Leonard (William Zappa), a tough-talking, embittered writer/editor. Bringing along their current work for some ruthless analysis, they meet in the classy Queens apartment of Kate (Matilda Ridgway), an increasingly desperate writer who resorts to comfort food when under attack. Izzy (Michelle Lim Davidson) is a free spirit quite ready to trade on her sex appeal; Douglas (Felix Gentle) is a lightweight destined for Hollywood riches; Martin (Matthew Zeremes), prickly and broke, finds it hard to share any of his work in progress.

Originally played by Alan Rickman on Broadway, Leonard (“our hideous, disgusting lecturer”) is a terrific part, and Zappa relishes stirring the well-mannered group into action with scant regard to their feelings. “Fiction is a dying art form,” he declares. Thankfully, playwriting as good as this is alive and kicking butt.

Anna Crawford directs with precision and Ailsa Paterson’s book-lined setting delivers a considerable surprise of its own for the final scene.

Frank Hatherley

Images: (top) Matthew Zeremes, Matilda Ridgway,  William Zappa and Michelle Lim Davidson & (lower) L to R Matt Zeremes, Matilda  Ridgway, William Zappa, Michelle Lim Davidson and Felix Gentle in Seminar. Photographer: Steve Lunam.