Sorting Out Rachel

Overview

When you get right down to it, successful parenting is governed by one rule: try and make a better life for your kid than the one you had. So when are you allowed to make the call on whether you succeeded? And what do you tell your kids when they show an interest in pursuing the same career that morally bankrupted you? Sorting Out Rachel is David Williamson's latest play, in which he asks whether it's possible to dry clean a stained legacy.

Bruce (John Howard) is a businessman at the end of a successful career. He has ushered through a few mergers, cut a couple of throats and kept his nearest and dearest fed and watered. But his daughter (Natalie Saleeba) isn't happy. Her husband (Glenn Hazeldine) is obsessed with their social status and his granddaughter Rachel (Jenna Owen) is veering closer to the sort of life Bruce is beginning to regret. Bruce knows how to fix these problems, but that would involve coughing up a secret he's been guarding for long time now.

Thinking of starting a family? Liking the sound of a career in business? Head to the Ensemble Theatre and let one of Australia's most lauded social commentators explain why you haven't thought it through properly.

Images: Heidrun Löhr