The Removalists – Tamarama Rock Surfers
A classic Australian dark comedy, with the comedy removed.
Overview
Tamarama Rock Surfers' artistic director Leland Kean has done something striking with David Williamson's 1971 play, The Removalists, currently playing at the Bondi Pavilion. He has interpreted it as a psychological drama, emphasising the play’s darkness over its comedy. It’s an interesting take and a solid production, but there are two reasons it doesn't quite work. The first is that without charm, the ocker Aussie male is unfamiliar, and the second is that the comedy of the first act is essential for the second act's violence to be a dramatic shift.
Designer Ally Mansell has set the scene beautifully, sourcing bona fide '70s carpet, filing cabinets and glassware to send us back in time. She’s succeeded in turning the large Bondi Pav into a space of stifling domesticity. Impressively, she’s gone down to the detail of creating a believable longneck of Melbourne Bitter from the time. Costume designer Rita Carmody has also triumphed in her fidelity to the era, with the standout costume being Kenny Carter's circulation-limiting footy shorts and mighty Hawks jersey.
We're introduced to small-time policeman Sergeant Dan Simmonds (Laurence Coy) explaining the lay of the land to new recruit Constable Neville Ross (Sam O'Sullivan). Simmonds's standard operating procedure is to only take cases if they look interesting. Interest arrives in the form of impeccably dressed upper-class socialite Kate Mason (Caroline Bazier), reporting an incident of domestic violence against her meek younger sister Fiona Carter (Sophie Hensser). The debacle that follows is certainly not dull for Sergeant Simmonds or the audience.
Williamson's 1971 play belongs to a group of works that began testing the edges of the Aussie bloke, an uncouth but basically benign figure in Australian culture. Along with Jack Hibberd's play White with Wire Wheels (1967) and Ted Kotcheff’s film Wake in Fright (1971), Williamson's play identifies the cardinal violence underneath the ribald, relentlessly hospitable surface of the 1970s breed of Aussie male.
Crucial to each of these works is the initial congeniality of the breed. Just as the protagonist of Wake in Fright encounters oppressive hospitality at every turn, Constable Ross in The Removalists fails to resist an aggressive interest in his personal life from his superior; a power play disguised as affection. Kean's direction of this opening sequence is slow and stern, and the power that Simmonds gains here over Ross is never fully established, preventing the satisfying status flip between the two in the second act. Simmonds presents as an oddball rather than tolerable buffoon, and while the characterisation of abusive husband Kenny Carter (Justin Stewart Cotta) is a powerful depiction of a nasty man, he’s not the dangerously charming husband we can imagine Fiona falling for. Williamson defines the Aussie male as a mix of charisma and violence, but this production doesn’t quite balance the two traits.
Comedy is a lure to devastation. And because this device is so key to The Removalists, the omission of the play's humour flattens the dramatic arc. Sam Atwell playing the Removalist hits a peppy note that lifts the production to a more engaging level. Being confronted with violence is more upsetting and informative if carried out by characters we care about.
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