David Williamson Plays
Williamson’s continuing examination of modern marriage follows a pair of academics from Denmark to Sydney as they blunder along the rival paths of career and parenthood. Introduced by Rodney Fisher.
Cast : 3M, 2F
A young policeman’s first day on duty becomes a violent and highly charged initiation into law enforcement. Remarkable for its blend of boisterous humour and horrifying violence, the play has acquired a reputation as a classic statement on Australian authoritarianism and is a key work in the study of Australian drama.
Cast : 4M, 2F
Scarlett O’Hara a the Crimson Parrot
Scarlett is a 36-year-old waitress who lives with her mother, has no boyfriend, and spends too much time watching old romantic movies. In her working hours she re-runs the scenes from the films with her co-worker Gordon, the gay kitchen hand in the restaurant. As Scarlett drifts deeper into her reveries of Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, she takes her place as the heroine in each of their movies.
Cast : 4M, 3F
Let the Sunshine
What happens when people of widely different political views are forced to co-exist? Toby, a maker of hard-hitting documentaries, flees Sydney with his wife after a blow up with the press. He arrives at his old childhood haven only to find the simple town has been transformed into a playground for the wealthy and his old friend has become married to a wealthy property developer. Add the couple’s two incompatible offspring, a struggling musician and a ruthless corporate lawyer, and the scene is set for a vintage Williamson comedy.
Cast:3M, 3F
Holed up in a Central Coast motel room with three undercover detectives, Liz has been employed to use her sex appeal on Billy Nottle, a local councillor suspected of accepting bribes from developers.
Cast : 5M, 2F
Against a background of disintegrating marital relationships and emotional greed, a newspaper editor along with three investigative journalists takes on the Mr Bigs of the drug trade. The villain proves to be the nature of society itself.
Cast : 6M, 3F
It’s election night 1969. Don and Kath, hope that there will be a change of government, and give a party to watch the results. As the tide turns against Labor, the good cheer palls and the faded ideals and disappointed hopes of the characters begin to show.
Williamson’s brilliant satire examines a society on the threshold of emerging from a generation of comfortable, conservative political and social values.
Cast : 6M, 5F
Williamson revisits his early play Jugglers Three, set against the background of the Vietnam War and first performed in 1972.
Graham, a conscript, is just back from Vietnam and keen to see his wife Keren, a reunion complicated when Keren’s lover Neville arrives, followed by Neville’s pregnant wife. On top of this domestic comedy comes Graham’s reverberating question about the need tostop the war and the politics of protest.
A taut and dramtic work which combines the energy and biting satire of the early Williamson plays, with the craftsmanship of maturity.
Cast : 5M, 2F
Williamson continues his analysis of family life. This time his portrait is set in the colourful world of the law. A legal aid solicitor and a prominent barrister battle over their individual careers and the future of their teenage son. Painfully they learn that justice has a number of guises and that the young are occasionally wiser than their parents.
Cast : 5M, 4F
Up for Grabs
Simone Allen likes to see herself as a prophet rather than a parasite, but when given the opportunity to sell one of the better Brett Whiteley paintings, her behaviour becomes less than angelic. Driven by greed and aesthetics, Williamson’s characters discover how far they will go when more than just a beautiful work of art is up for grabs in this sexy comedy of manners.
Cast : 3M, 4F
Corporate Vibes
Sam, a real estate developer, is accustomed to getting his own way, usually by shouting. When his staff mutiny, he finds himself confronted by a softly-spoken mediator and a demand for buildings which ‘delight the eye’ — and the stage is set for a vintage farce.
Cast: 3M, 4F
This volume shows a consolidation and maturing of Williamson’s style. Although he retains his satirical edge, there is a marked move from the domestic and personal dilemmas explored in the earlier plays to a focus on the public domain. Private desires and public issues are subtly compared and contrasted.
The Department
A staff meeting of the Engineering Department in a College of Advanced Education is the occasion in this play for an acute dissection of the workings of bureaucracy and the absurd politicking needed to support it.
Cast : 8M, 2F
A Handful of Friends
Life in the film industry was never meant to be easy, but when a ruthless director makes his alcoholic friend the subject of his latest feature, tensions snap.
Cast: 2M, 3F
The Club
Williamson’s famous play about the uses and abuses of managerial power, which in 1976 foreshadowed the great changes that Australian football has since endured, proves even more prescient since the rise and fall of Super League. This is a play set behind the scenes, a head-on tackle of brawn versus bureaucracy.
Cast: 6M
Travelling North
A moving homage to age and the old radicals who changed the course of our history. Soon after Frank and Frances desert their former lives for a northerly bohemian retreat, Frank’s mortality asserts itself.