Influence
Written by David Williamson
Directed by Bruce Myles
Starring John Waters, Octavia Barron-Martin, Zoe Carides and Vanessa Downing
Melbourne Theatre Company
At the Playbox, Melbourne, until August 30
REVIEW BY VANNESSA HEARMAN
Influence is apparently David Williamson's last play. The playwright who has given us The Club and Don's Party returns to the stage with a broadside at radio shock jocks and the deluded world they inhabit.
Influence broke the Sydney Theatre Company's box office records when it debuted at the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre in March, selling more than 35,000 tickets in just a few weeks. Since then, it has toured to Adelaide and will return to Sydney for another season.
Modelled on the growing number of shock jocks in Australia's big cities (as well as right-wing newspaper columnists), John Waters plays Ziggi Blasko, a brash, right-wing, highly-paid voice on a Sydney radio station's afternoon program. With current affairs programs rapidly being replaced by talkback shows, opinion becomes the accepted truth when stated over and over again by the shock jock pretending to represent "the ordinary person in the street". But is the ordinary person in the street as xenophobic, irresponsible and full of hate as the radio shock jock — or as rich?
Blasko blathers on about Lebanese "crime gangs", corporal punishment, the "myth" of the working poor and the Muslim community's supposed terrorist leanings. He taps into the insecurity and the fear that Australian society has been fed over time — from marauding hordes of boat people to Muslim terrorists under the bed. "The switchboard's lit up!" is his trademark saying. Many of the calls are supportive of his views — though these listeners hardly have anything in common with him.
Off-air, he returns home to a palatial Sydney apartment with million-dollar views and a beautiful wife (Vivienne Blasko, played by Octavia Barron-Martin) as the ultimate accessory — not caring a whit about the impact of his broadcasts. Vivienne inhabits a world just as self-obsessed as her husband's and is trying to revive a dancing career. Add to this scene of not-quite domestic bliss, Blasko's father and daughter, who are wrestling with past demons and teenage troubles — troubles bad enough to encroach on the Blaskos.
Williamson portrays rich people like the Blaskos as uncaring, self-centred people who never consider how those "worker ants" scurrying below their harbour view apartments are getting by — except when these workers enter their realm as their personal full-time staff. Zehra (Zoe Carides), the housekeeper, embodies all those elements Blasko attacks on air: migrant, single mother (widowed), working poor and living in Blacktown.
Over time, Zehra can no longer tolerate sitting through Blasko's public rants against Muslims and migrants (unless they are hard-working, post-war European migrants like his Croatian father). His rants do have an impact on how she is treated in public, yet Blasko is never forced to account for his actions to people like Zehra. Williamson also portrays a sense of class solidarity between the housekeeper and the driver/groundskeeper when it comes to standing up for their rights in the workplace, however meagre these rights may be.
When all the elements in Blasko's comfortable life come to the verge of collapse, the cut-throat media world demands that his broadcasts become more hysterical than ever, if he wants to stay on air. While Blasko might have alienated those around him, it doesn't stop the radio networks from wanting him to continue on. The media machine rolls on. He is just a player in the corporate media after all.
Influence can be a teeth-gnashing and uncomfortable experience, knowing full-well the virulent rubbish spouted by the shock jock. My companion, not easily moved by theatre, shook his head with anger several times during the performance. If this is indeed Williamson's last play, it's a memorable way to exit. The question the audience is left to ponder is, what are you going to do to challenge the shock jock phenomenon? What will we do to change the Australia that has enabled shock jocks to flourish and be trusted as guides on how to interpret the world?
From Green Left Weekly, July 6, 2005.
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