What happens when a high-flyer returns home to Wollongong after a fall from grace in Hong Kong? LOUISE TURK talks to screenwriter Tristram Baumber about his latest work.
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Scriptwriter Tristram Baumber chose Wollongong as the place where his lead character, a former expatriate high-flyer, would rebuild his life after suffering a mental breakdown.
Yet his character's homecoming, in the 30-minute comedy Timothy, is less than auspicious.
Timothy has left behind a corporate life in Hong Kong to return to his parent's house and a beloved dressing gown, which appears to never leave his back.
"I wanted to approach Timothy as a character first and then come at the mental health aspect.''
Timothy (Stephen Curry) annoys his mother Melinda (Denise Scott) to no end, rearranging her household, practising martial arts on the clothes line, and insisting on only eating fresh silver carp, which Melinda has to buy on the black market and then kill at home.
Whenever she tries to gently encourage Timothy to move outside his comfort zone, he is resistant to change.
In a funny cinematic moment, Timothy pees in a pot plant after his mother deviates from carp and serves him sweet potato and chorizo soup.
Timothy's condition is not specified yet his therapist indicates the road to recovery could be a long one.
Timothy was screened on the ABC earlier this month, during a week of programming to mark Mental Health Week.
Baumber, a former University of Wollongong student, set the comedy in his home town drawing on his own experiences of how it felt to live abroad and then return to Wollongong to spend time with his mother Ann, with whom he is close.
"After I had stayed with my mum for a month or so I thought this sort of experience could work for the character - if Timothy was going to live back with his mum as I had done, it would be very strange," he says.
"Suddenly you are in this house in which you have previously been in, in a completely different context, when you were a different person.
"I wanted to explore in the character how that affects you and how quickly you snap back into relationships that you used to have with your parents and your surroundings and how that makes you feel.
"In a way it kind of re-sets you back to who you were before you went out and did the things you did as an adult."
He was also familiar with the landscape of Wollongong, having grown up in Mount Ousley and being schooled at Holy Spirit College.
The concept of Timothy began three years ago when Baumber, who is also a playwright, was living in the United Kingdom.
The screened comedy - produced by Quail Television and directed by Erin White (At Home with Julia) - is one of several episodes which Baumber has penned around the Timothy character.
The character was created from Baumber's observations of people who had experienced a breakdown and/or a mental health issue.
Baumber spent a lot of time exploring the character and making sure the things his protagonist said and did felt true.
"I wanted to approach Timothy as a character first and then come at the mental health aspect," he says.
"The show has been in development for more than three years so there has been a lot of input from different people on how we should portray Timothy and they way he interacts with the other characters."
Baumber says what interested him about the character was the fine line between the person Timothy was in Hong Kong and the person he is in Wollongong after his fall from grace.
"When Timothy was in Hong Kong and living the high life and making these huge decisions which involved financial systems, millions of dollars and loads of people, he was not that different to the person we see back in Wollongong in a dressing gown," he says.
"His personality hasn't really changed and his approach to things hasn't really changed.
"It's just his capacity to take on those huge things has changed.
"So he is very much the same person but he's not capable now of taking that extra step to say: 'Yes, I'll run a massive company and I'll be in charge of all these people'."
Baumber said he was delighted in the casting of Curry as Timothy, which is backed by strong performances by Scott and Peter Rowsthorn, playing Timothy's father Colin.
"Stephen Curry just stepped into the role and made it his own," says Baumber.
"He was fantastic. Now I can't imagine anyone other than Stephen playing this role."
Baumber - the son of Ken Baumber, former UOW Secretary and Vice-Principal (Administration) from 1986 to 1996 - has been living in Newcastle for several years with his writer wife Elena Terol Sabino.
They are parents to Santiago, who turns two on Tuesday.
Baumber now divides his time between writing, caring for Santiago, and working two days a week as an administrator for Tantrum Youth Arts, a Newcastle theatre institution, located within the old St Phillip's Presbyterian Church on Watt Street.
"It's a great way for me to stay in touch with the arts in Newcastle and to be a part of the wonderful work Tantrum does for the area's youth," he says.
Baumber says fatherhood has completely changed his life.
"Everything is based around what [Santiago] needs," he says.
"Fatherhood changes the structure of things so that the most important thing is your child and everything else has to fit around that. Everything else is a bonus on top of having a son."
The new experience allows Baumber to explore the relationship between parent and child in his writing.
He is working with Essential Media and Entertainment (Rake, Jack Irish) on an idea for another show, titled Future Boy, which involves a mother and son relationship.
"It's based very much on my relationship with my son and thinking about how that will expand in the future," he says.
"Fatherhood has definitely made me think a lot more about what it means to be a parent and the immense responsibility that we have as parents.
"As a writer it's good for me because when you've got parental/child relationships in your writing it opens up a whole lot of emotional areas that people can tap into, so it makes the writing stronger and you can connect with people on a new level."
Baumber is currently working on editing a short web comedy series, titled The Cleanists, which he also directed. It will be launched online in December.
Timothy is available on ABC iview until November 7.