The Company: Melbourne Theatre Company
The Space: The Southbank Theatre
Stars: 4
Runtime: an hour and 45 minutes
Until 17 April.
The Removalists was originally produced in 1971. 54 years ago. When it originally came out, I would’ve been three-years-old. This was David Williamson‘s fourth play, before he became the darling of the Australian in theatre scene. I remember this being on the Year 12 curriculum along with Don's Party and The Club in the mid-eighties.
It’s interesting that the Melbourne Theatre Company has chosen to put on, being one of Williamson‘s most famous plays, especially in a time where Women have far more equality and the behaviour of police has some improved over the years. It’s because of this that the play does feel a little bit dated. What might’ve felt normal 50 years ago certainly doesn’t ring true now, which makes us even more uncomfortable to watch.
The play hasn't changed. Set in the early 70s, we find ourselves in a two-man satellite police station where Sergeant Simmons (Steve Mouzakis) is lording it over his rookie Ross (William McKenna) who's having what I would call the first day from hell. The thing about this police station is nothing really happens there. Anything big gets sent to the big station at Box Hill. Anything too minor gets swept under the carpet.
Things change when Kate (Jessica Clarke) and Fiona (Eloise Mignon) turn up, requesting a police report after the latter's husband has bashed her. Kate, the more confident of the two sisters is adamant that Fiona report her husband's deeds as she's trying to leave him and evidence the evidence is required. Fiona wants anything for a quiet exit and for the situation to be resolved.
And here's where things get really uncomfortable for the modern consumer. Things, thankfully, have moved on in fifty years (even if some say they haven't). The way the women were treated - okay, condescended to. The taking of evidence. The lack of empathy. The incompetent cop coming up with a plan to extricate the hapless Fiona from the flat into her new place while her husband is out.
As much as is reeks of incompetence, I'm pretty sure things like this used to go on.
The second act finds us in Fiona's flat, freshly bashed and waiting for Simmons, Ross and the Removalist (Martin Blum) to turn up. Then her husband Kenny (Michael Whalley) unexpectedly turns up, refusing to go down the pub for a counter tea as is his normal routine.
And all hell breaks loose.
This isn't the best of Williamson's plays, but it is one of his most important, looking at everything from police competence and brutality, the fragility of those experiencing domestic violence, to the treatment of women, it's all in there.
I did enjoy the play. Jay didn't. And that's okay.
Firstly, all of the cast were great. This was really well acted. Steve Mouzakis was particularly good as Simmons, the lazy, bent older cop.
Anne Marie Sarks direction was also very good. She kept her cast on a very tight leash and this restraint paid off in droves.
My biggest issue with the whole thing was the set.
Instead of keeping this in the traditional proscenium arch arrangement, stage at the front, they did something different, putting a small group of the audience on the other side of the stage and having the stage in a rhomboid shape. We were seated in the traditional seats to the left. Having an odd-shaped stage was discombobulating. I'm not sure how I would have felt being on the other side of the stage close up to the action, which at times, was violent.
This aside, Dale Ferguson and his team capture the drab banality of seventies decor perfectly. The office space, in particular, was masterfully rendered.
For me, despite a couple of misgivings, this was a win. At an hour and 45 minutes with no interval, I was kept entertained and aware for the duration of the place. What's more troubling is that concerns from fifty years ago are still front of mind today.
This is work a look. It's an Australian classic done well.
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