Tom Rodgers

Notes

SYDNEY REVIEWS “The breath of fresh air in this production is Tom Rodgers, making his Sydney theatre debut as an up-for-anything hotel worker. The play breathes easier when he arrives on stage.” - JOHN SHAND, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD “Rodgers, who played a small but energising role in the recent production of John Donnelly’s The Pass at the Seymour Centre, is a newcomer but he occupies centre stage exceptionally well, deftly carrying the play’s comic, tragic and musical loads. He’s one to watch.” - JASON BLAKE, AUDREY JOURNAL “Expertly played by Tom Rodgers... it’s possibly one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever seen on a Sydney stage, a credit to both writer and performer.” - SYDNEY SENTINEL “Stunning Tom Rodgers creates a character with both humour and humanity.” - KATE GAUL, ON THE TOWN “Tom Rodgers is Jordan. He inhabits Jordan, feels his highs, covers his lows, but allows the audience to understand every nuance of his complex emotions. There is sustained energy in his performance, a sort of physical restraint that hovers just below the person his friends love and depend on yet is so strong that the audience ‘gets’ him, understands his growing anxieties, feels his fear of being left alone. The Jordan Rodgers portrays is loveable, vulnerable, real…” - STAGE WHISPERS “No one is more vital to the show’s considerable success than Rodgers as Jordan… Rodgers is nothing short of brilliant here, a shining star just short of flaming, a realistic man with a witty intelligence comes to stage without any bitchy queen tropes.  He swings and whips from witty observer and dry commentor to stuttery and shy, sad and needy, with absolute plausibility. Never offstage and having to travel quite an emotional arc, Rodgers doesn’t begin by being OTT to make a point.  Yes, he endows Jordan with that potential, but his character isn’t facile or nastily surfaced, even when his life fails to make a turn.  It really is a wonderful performance.” - REVIEWS BY JUDITH “Rodgers’s performance as Jordan was easily the stand-out of the production. The character arc from upbeat but touchy to moody and bitter was heartbreaking, akin to being helplessly strapped into a doomed carnival ride. Rodgers’s vulnerability and the rawness with which he played both Jordan’s lows and his perilous highs was difficult to watch for their tender accuracy. Rodgers navigated the range of raging emotions in Jordan’s situation with skill and deft nuance.” - NIGHT WRITES