Contessa Treffone isn't ashamed to admit her weakness for a culinary craze. For her it was the cronut, a carb-tastic croissant-doughnut hybrid invented by pastry chef Dominique Ansel in 2013 that first took over Instagram before taking over bakeries and cafes around the globe.
“I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so when those cronuts came out I was like what is this? The more that was piled on top of it, the more I wanted one,” says Treffone.
It’s all hands on deck for Contessa Treffone, as she plays dozens of roles in the comedy Full Committed. Credit:Dominic Lorrimier
The actor has been considering Sydney's obsession with food – all the way from freakshakes to multi-course degustations – ahead of her appearance in a rejig of Becky Mode’s Broadway comedy Fully Committed.
Treffone plays Sam, a struggling actor employed in the reservations office of a trendy molecular gastronomy restaurant, the type of booked-months-in-advance eatery that serves "smoked cuttlefish risotto in a cloud of dry ice infused with pipe tobacco". The problem is no one else has turned up to work, so Sam is left alone to field the busy phone lines as a variety of wannabe diners angle to get a table.
However, it's not only Sam that Treffone has to master, but every role – switching between dozens of characters across 90 minutes, including a blunt French maitre d', a pair of warring socialites and even celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. “Look, it's a bit of a brain fry, not to lie,” says Treffone. “I do have 32 voices swimming around in my head, which can feel a little bit full at times, but it's fun.”
Mode's play was originally set in New York City as a one-man show, but when Ensemble Theatre's creative team chose to gender flip the character, it was also decided to relocate the action to Sydney's Woolloomooloo.
“If we're going to change this and make it for a woman, why not adapt this for an Australian setting as well?” says Treffone. “I hope audiences can have a chuckle about the side [of high-end dining] that is sometimes a bit over the top. I think particularly Sydney audiences will understand that, no matter where they sit on that scale, whether they're a smashed avocado addict or they love a Bennelong kind of experience.”
The 30-year-old NIDA-trained actor has enjoyed a fantastic run in the past 12 months, with critical praise for her work in large ensemble pieces The Harp in the South and Lord of the Flies for Sydney Theatre Company. “There are definitely days when you are in a room with people whose work you've admired for so long and you have to pinch yourself because you're like, 'Oh my goodness',” says Treffone.
And while her career is going well, Treffone has traversed the thespian rite of passage of waiting tables, giving her some brief but valuable experience of the drama in fine dining to draw upon. At age 19 she worked in an upscale restaurant in Scotland while on a gap year, but she soon realised she had neither the patience, nor the wrists, for that particular line of work.
“I lasted like five days, because I had to change tables and I put a knife the wrong way. The floor manager screamed at me, she kept calling me 'You' and I said, 'Oh, my name is Contessa'. She said [in a withering tone], 'I don't need to know your name', and I was like I'm done. I came up with some sort of ridiculous excuse as to why I needed to fly back to Australia and I ran away.”
Fully Committed is at Ensemble Theatre until November 16.
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