Some people peak early, their academic or athletic achievements in school not being matched by success in the wider world. The issue is particularly acute for actors, who are often perceived as requiring constant affirmation from audiences and followers to safeguard fragile egos.
One Hundred Percent drops the audience into the middle of a passive-aggressive confrontation. The Actor (Benjamin Sumrie) unexpectedly encounters The Examiner (the role alternates between Francesca Maria Izzo and, tonight, David Allen), who once awarded him a perfect grade for his acting skills and takes the opportunity to invite him to reminisce over a cup of tea.
It rapidly becomes apparent this is a trap. The Actor dominates the meeting in a petty manner, declaring where The Examiner should sit and belittling his choice of drink. The Actor, it turns out, holds a grudge, believing the high grade awarded by The Examiner gave him unrealistic expectations about his abilities, resulting in him pursuing an acting career despite growing evidence it is not the correct choice. Having confronted The Examiner with the consequences of his actions, The Actor feels the only logical action is to commit murder.
Despite the growing unease in the early scenes, neither the characters nor the audience really believe violence is going to happen. Instead, director Liam Grogan concentrates on exploring the dark absurdity of the situation. A tense face-off develops between the characters as they consider which of them should be first to weaken and eat a biscuit. When The Examiner suggests a good career move might be for The Actor to write a play based upon his experiences, Benjamin Sumrie makes uncomfortable eye contact with an audience member and asks who on earth would come and see such a play.
There are in-jokes and tributes in the play. The opening scene is loaded with menacing Pinteresque pauses. When The Actor re-enacts his auditions pieces, Sumrie adopts the styles of famous Shakespearean actors.
An issue One Hundred Percent has to address is that the movie The King of Comedy has already given us a perfectly realised psychotic fantasist with a showbiz obsession. Impressively, Benjamin Sumrie does not dodge this situation; at one point, The Actor admits to behaving like De Niro’s Rupert Pupkin and imagining being on chat shows to graciously acknowledge the support of The Examiner. But Sumrie limits the dignity allowed to The Actor by emphasising his narcissistic immaturity and childishness—blaming his misfortunes upon someone else rather than contemplate, and try and correct, his own limitations. His voice regularly goes high and squeaky in outrage, and he sulks in a corner having a tearful tantrum. The effect is creepy and needy rather than frightening.
David Allen interprets The Examiner as a wary adult trying to cope with an emotionally insecure child. The Examiner has the professional high ground, having actually earned a living by acting on stage compared to the glorified cosplay undertaken by The Actor. As the play progresses, the power dynamic shifts, with The Examiner becoming more dominant, unable to resist the urge to utilise his critical skills to point out, objectively, flaws in The Actor’s audition pieces.
Plays written by actors about acting can easily become self-indulgent, but the dark, cynical approach and high-quality performances make One Hundred Percent absorbing and entirely entertaining.