My overall impression
I’m slightly biased, because I read this story when David first developed it as a screenplay several years back, and I liked it very much then. But I must submit that I truly prefer it as a one-man storytelling evening where he acts out the parts – David Rodwin is a truly compelling storyteller, treading the same ground as Mike Daisey and Spalding Gray, but with his own unique brand of humility and an ability to let us in, show his foibles and fears in a way that lets us laugh with him.
The story he tells is a gripping one – and if there’s one take-away I’d like you to have from this review – it is a VERY WELL-TOLD STORY that pulls you along and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
There is profanity, there are descriptions of a couple of sexual acts, and there is a lot of soul-searching, loneliness, feeling inadequate to the challenges life throws at you. There is a moving story of two people trying to make a real connection in a world where at best we’re only making semaphores at each other across a fog-filled chasm of language.
TOTAL NOVICE is one of the best 75-minutes I have spent in the theatre in a long time.
