You Talkin' to Me? - Diary of an Olympic Cabbie
You Talkin’ To Me? Ensemble Theatre, April 2-May 26, 2008; (61 2) 9929 0644 or www.ensemble,theatre.com.au
Loitering in the Ensemble bar while waiting to enter the auditorium is to risk being rounded up by a megaphone-toting “Done-clone” (Catherine Moore) who brings memories of the Sydney Olympics of 2000 flooding back. She is not one of those sweeties many of us came to know and admire during Sydney’s two golden weeks in September 2000, but rather one of the feral human sheepdogs who reveled in the power invested by the gaudy outfit and laminated, official lanyard-slung name tags.
”You’ve done this before …” I said to the Olympic guide as she ushered us officiously towards the doors. Quick as a flash, she shot back: “I’m a professional volunteer, ma’am. I’m here to serve.”
Maybe, but she definitely did not spend time at charm school. The Olympic volunteer chivvies the audience into a good mood from the off so that by the time fledgling taxi-driver Andy (Jamie Oxenbould) chirrups on stage, there is an atmosphere not unlike the fabled 2000 love-in when Sydney fell in love with itself and the world fell in love with Sydney. Sneer at that and you obviously weren’t there.
Andy (in real life Anthony Sharwood) was there and Mark Kilmurry has adapted a charming, perceptive comedy from the book Sharwood wrote about his experiences as a cabbie during the Olympics. Living somewhat in the shadow of his go-getter executive girlfriend Isabella (the hardworking and versatile Moore again) Andy is in the doldrums and thus, going nowhere fast. Driving a cab, he figures, isn’t rocket science and he might get to have some fun, met a few stars and see something of the Games.
It doesn’t work out quite like that. Indeed, it barely works out at all: he sees more of the events on TV – didn’t we all – and his relationship with Isabella begins to unravel as they pass at odd hours of the day or night.
Between them, Sharwood and Kilmurry mostly manage the balance between Olympic nostalgia and the personal stories. It’s funny, truthful and Sharwood had a very keen eye and ear for the non-events going on around him that are, in a funny way, much more memorable than the media mayhem. Aside from the sequence where Andy remembers and he and Isabella re-enact the night when Cathy Freeman won gold. The writing and performances here transcend the jokefest and are sweetly, poignantly moving.
Directed with judicious verve by Kilmurry, Oxenbould excels himself in a non-stop almost-monologue during which he relates Andy’s adventures while also playing all the subsidiary characters. It’s skilful and hugely entertaining. Moore is very much the support act but is very good at it.
Brian Nickless's set is clean and simple: a prop-taxi which gets twirled about (a bit too much, probably) a decorative strip of UBD to remind us of those pre-satnav days and a few Olympic banners – ideal for the tiny Ensemble space. Martin Kinnane's lighting does some good effects including moments from the opening and closing ceremonies, but essentially it’s the writing and the performances that carry the night.
You Talkin’ To Me? is surprisingly resonant for a frothy comedy and that’s because it delves into and reminds us of that brief time, now nearly a decade ago, when something amazing and good happened to this city and its people. It lasted too, at least until the day before Sharwood’s book was published ... on September 12, 2001. It’s the only bad timing on display, however, and elicits a rueful laugh-groan from the audience.
