Toby Schmitz
After three plays in a row for Sydney Theatre Company, this in-demand actor returns to the title role of last year's smash hit Ruben Guthrie for Company B. He speaks to Nick Dent about hard working, hard drinking and the thirst for fame
By Nick Dent
Stage-wise, it's like you've been in everything lately. Have we reached some kind of Toby Schmitz tipping point? I've had a good run. [Previously] I've done on average a professional play every year and a half. For the last 12 months, they've overlapped. There was Ruben Guthrie, then The Great, and then Rabbit, then Travesties and now Ruben again. I've been rehearsing one play during the day and then doing another at night. It's stuff you dream about. I've actually felt really fit - I couldn't go out at night afterwards.
Still, Ruben Guthrie deals with alcoholism and the links between working and partying in this country... It's an inherited culture. This is a colony that started by paying people in rum. You'd spend a day breaking rocks and come home with your flagon and drink your paycheque... I'm sure there's a way of not drinking and taking coke and still surviving the advertising world, but Ruben has fallen into a stereotypical path.
The play predates the global financial crisis. Is it now a period piece? It's not like advertising is going to go down without a fight. But I think Ruben wants out anyway. Early on, and I said to [playwright] Brendan [Cowell], "It's as if someone like us fell into advertising, not fringe theatre." Ruben's got a creative soul, which meant I could really like him.
What do you snort on stage in the play instead of cocaine? Assuming you use a substitute. Glucose powder - it's pure sugar. I've actually started to look forward to my Glucodin hit at a quarter past nine. And the tablets that I wash down are Eclipse mints. I'm pushing for a change of mint this time. The laxative effect of a fistful of Eclipse mints is not good if you're trying to go to bed an hour and a half later.
Did you go on any benders for research?
I've been on enough in the last decade, I think.
The NIDA years, perhaps? You were a notorious hellraiser, weren't you?
For about the first year, it was all on. And then they had me over the barrel. They said, "You have missed five periods. You'd obviously been drinking on this day. I think you're a bit stoned now. So, once more and you're out of the school." So I really pulled my socks up for a couple of years. But then for the first few years out of NIDA... wild times.
Do you recall your first STC gig? Robyn Nevin cast me in a Williamson that toured for six or seven months. I was chuffed. It was a real-time thing so I was on stage the whole time with Genevieve Picot and Max Cullen and Martin Vaughan, and I fell asleep onstage one matinee. I looked up suddenly and 800 people are looking at me thinking, 'Did you just have the nods?'
We hear you were a theatrical kid. Yeah, always in the school play. My parents were quite bohemian. I was taken to the theatre, Dad taught drama, we had bookshelves full of plays. The equivalent of Australian Theatre for Young People in Perth is run out of a boys' school and they took us on tour to England when I was in year 11. I was allowed to hang with the 20 year olds so I went into pubs and not once did someone say 'How old are you?' Instead, it was 'Here's a pint of warm beer, and there's six more coming.'
Is it fair to say you've done less TV than other actors of your generation?
Absolutely. I did 13 eps of a TV series a few years ago [The Cooks] and they shoved it into non-existence in a late night slot. I find it hard to get film or TV producers to sign off on me. I lust after it like every actor because of the power and the money and the romance. But I could do what I've done for the last year for the rest of my life - theatre's too much fun and too glorious and too arty to pass up.
You've written a few plays haven't you? Eight or ten since I got out of NIDA. I've got a play coming on at the Old Fitzroy later this year called The Best Hotel in the Dam. It's unashamedly my Away - it's young teenagers and 'are they gonna pash or not?'
What do you love about Sydney? The fringe scene here is nice and tough. It's hard to get a play on here. I have a theory that the more civilised a city, the potential for shit fringe goes up. But this is a hard, neon, artless city in a way, so the odds are good the work is going to be good.
Is the Sydney theatre scene cliquey? My advice to any acting student is hang out down at the Darlinghurst Theatre Bar or Old Fitzroy Bar. Get your bum down there, shake the hand of the director and say 'My name is...' And they may be just that bit more open when you come in with your play you've written or an old Sam Shepard that you think has to be done.
So drinking is important to a theatrical career as well? It's definitely a plus if you can do it. And it's easier than networking to try and get yourself a corporate promotion. It's a theatre foyer - it's a welcoming place.
Ruben Guthrie plays at the Belvoir St Theatre, 23 May - 5 Jul.
Life & times
1977 Born in Perth
1993 Tours UK in Song of the Seals with Midnite Youth Theatre Company
1997 Moves to Sydney and enrols in NIDA; narrowly avoids expulsion
1999 Graduates; first pro gig is an insurance ad in NZ
2000 Appears in David Williamson's The Great Man for Sydney Theatre Company; first play dreamalittledreamalittle staged at Belvoir Downstairs
2001 Directed by Judy Davis in STC's School for Scandal
2003 His award-winning play Chicks Will Dig You! staged at Belvoir; appears in film Somersault with Abbie Cornish
2007 Writes and directs Hitler Youth play Capture the Flag at Old Fitzroy
2008 Stars in Ruben Guthrie for Company B and three STC productions
2009 Travesties for STC; Ruben Guthrie returns to Belvoir St
