theatre: McKinney takes the stage alone
Tejpal Singh Swatch, Associate Staff Writer

It is often difficult to watch one person shows. Often self-indulgent - dramatically, unbearably self-indulgent - ruminations of one's soul and, more often than not, one's bodily functions. I tend to avoid these ego trips like Albertan beef. An ugly offshoot - is there any other kind? - of the cult of personality in society, one person shows are the ultimate in the artist forgetting about art.

Thus, a certain amount of trepidation accompanied me into the Granville Island stage to see Fully Committed, the Arts Club's first production of the summer season. The play only had one player (Mark McKinney of Kids In The Hall fame) and the pretentious setting of a fashionable gourmet restaurant in New York. What horrors would I endure? What terrible things would the actor on stage tell me? Would he slather foodstuffs on his body? Would he - sweet baby James - dance?

He did dance, albeit briefly, in a fleeting stutter step of glee, a microcosm moment in rapid fire, dizzyingly kinetic, whirlwind of a play, and I didn't mind it one bit. McKinney works through a cross-section of characters and voices at a relentless pace, using the lulls in the dialogue to catch his breath and quench his thirst.

Fully Committed is a comedy about the perils of working the phones in upscale Manhatthan eatery. McKinney plays Sam, the quintessential struggling actor in a day job before the "surely-it's-coming-soon" big break. Stuck in a dingy, airless basement of the fashionable restaurant with a bank of ceaselessly ringing phones, Sam deals with not only various customers seeking an elusive reservation, but other employees of the all-too-busy restaurant.

Sam is in dire straits. He desperately waits for his agent to contact him about a call-back at "the Lincoln Center thing." He needs Christmas off so he can visit his ailing and lonely father, but must deal with his selfish and incompetent co-worker, Bob, and the mendacious Chef.

And, of course, there are the customers who ring the phone constantly, troubling Sam with their hyperdemands ("We need a table tonight for anytime between 7:30 and 8:00"), their inane chatter ("This is Bryce calling from Naomi Campbell's office!") and their utter insanity (Mrs. Sebag must be heard to be believed).

McKinney voices all these characters, some three dozen in total, with rapid efficiency, creating the memorable characters of the man-child Chef, the simpering British secretary Stephanie, the French aloofness of the maitre'd Jean Claude, the rural, aw-shucks kindness of Sam's father, the disturbing, roar of Mrs. Sebag and domineering New York socialite Carol-Ann Rosenstein Fishburne ("I'll stay on hold forever," she declares).

Becky Mode, who penned Fully Committed, serves up a funny existential crisis. Sam is in a rut, rotting in hell of ringing phones, politely asking the boorish people that surround him for a break. Mode seems to realise that Fully Committed is in danger of being an extended 80-minute skit, and tempers the frantic action and catastrophe with resentful calms. She manages to tell a story and endear the main character, with no small help from McKinney.

Mark McKinney is excellent in a very demanding role. He nails every character, adopting a slight mannerism or contortion of the face to signal a change to a new personality. He creates a hysteria that is difficult to make sense of, regularly leaving the audience behind as he barges ahead to another upswing of action. His timing is near perfect, seamlessly blending vociferous demand and insult with pained calm and endurance. McKinney's virtuosity is very much the main reason to see the show.

That said, it should be pointed out that I hardly ever laughed out loud for Fully Committed, mostly allowing myself a satisfied smile. This is because the play is really little more than an extended skit; funny, to be sure, but not really moving past the novelty of the singularity, in talent and number of actors.

It is still a wonderful way to spend a warm Vancouver evening. McKinney alone justifies the price of admission and makes this reviewer believe in one person shows again.

Fully Committed is playing at the Granville Island Stage until June 28th. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or at more reasonable prices at studentrush.com.

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