Pacific Union
By Alex Buzo
Directed by Aarne Neeme
New Theatre, Newtown, Sydney
Until 7 February
Review by Brendan Doyle
Pacific Union tells part of the story of Australia's involvement in the first conference of the United Nations, held in San Francisco in April 1945.
Alex Buzo's play focuses on Dr Bert Evatt's role at that conference, where he emerged as a dominant figure daring to challenge the hegemony of the big nations, a leading framer of the UN charter, and a creator of Australia's first independent foreign policy. Of 38 new or amended articles to the Charter proposed by the Evatt team, which included Paul Hasluck and Sam Atyeo, 26 were incorporated, including full employment and reform of the Security Council.
The play gets its title from Evatt's comment: "This is not a peace conference ... This is about world security, a pacific union of all nations for all time."
All praise must go to Buzo for taking on the difficult but essential task of giving a place to major characters of our history on the stage. That he has not totally succeeded is due in part to the enormity of the challenge.
Obviously an admirer of Evatt's achievements, Buzo has written a sprawling play, here performed with a huge cast of 23. It has many good moments, although it didn't always manage to sustain the necessary dramatic energy to keep the audience involved.
The play starts in Australia with Evatt (Barry Latchford) and his American wife Mas (Tricia Youlden) in heated discussion about whether he is more needed in Canberra, improving his political prospects within the ALP government, or in San Francisco, trying to do something for world peace.
We then follow them to the US and the heady atmosphere of a meeting where many truly believed they could secure lasting international peace.
The major dramatic action in this play brimming with actual quotes from speeches and media reports centres around Evatt's battle to win acceptance of his positions, such as rejecting the veto powers of the "big five", and full employment as a prerequisite for a durable peace.
We see him challenge deputy PM Frank Forde for effective leadership of the Australian delegation, then attempt to win acceptance of his ideas for the Charter, involving him in a bitter argument with Anthony Eden, the arrogant UK foreign secretary, over the speed of decolonisation.
Buzo manages to suggest the monumental difficulties facing any organisation such as the UN, when personal rivalries and egos bump into big power politics and wheeling and dealing. In this bear pit, Evatt learns quickly, and is soon mixing it with the best of them, without ever losing his naive but endearing Australian sense of democracy and fair play.
Neeme's direction is clear and competent. The set is practical but very drab in its almost monotone colouring. Otherwise, costume and design look genuine '40s.
The acting performances are of a high order. Latchford looks like Evatt, with well-studied mannerisms. Youlden is a delight as his long-suffering wife and confidante. Tim Dwyer is convincing as Evatt's chief minder, Sam Atyeo, and Rob Thomas impresses as Paul Hasluck, a junior bureaucrat out of his depth in the big league.
The problems of this production come down to the writing. Buzo's research has yielded so much material that the play's dramatic structure feels weighed down by it. The play's energy is diffused by being broken up into so many vignettes of activity, when more could be made of Evatt's closest relationships, his conflicting emotions, the enormity of the fight he's engaged in. We see a lot of the public Evatt, not enough of the private man. At times it feels a bit too much like a history lesson.
Nonetheless, Buzo and the New Theatre have given us a colourful portrait of a man of vision and idealism who, with all his personal shortcomings, was prepared to face the big guns and fight for what he believed in.