Mongrels
By Nick Enright
Directed by Adam Cook
Sydney Theatre Company
The Wharf, Sydney
Review by Brendan Doyle
Yet again we go back to the good old '70s, when there were real issues, real people and real passionate playwrights! Or were there?
A mongrel, my dictionary says, is "a dog of mixed or uncertain breed". The mongrels of Nick Enright's play, first staged in 1991, are two very different but unpleasant Sydney playwrights who had their heyday in the 1970s. They are loosely based on Jim McNeil and Peter Kenna, but this production does not draw attention to that.
One of them, Edmund Burke, jailed for armed robbery, has a gift for words. While inside he writes A Dog's Life, a play based on his jail experiences. He is a ruthless man, totally self-centred and fucks anything that moves.
Vincent O'Hara, the other playwright, proud of his Irish Catholic background, lives in the suburbs with his sister. He suffers from severe kidney damage and writes plays about Irish Catholic families. He is also "camp", as they said back then.
The play opens in prison, where Burke and another inmate act a scene from Burke's play. The action reveals Burke as a sexual predator who uses the threat of violence and the power of words to get what he wants.
Enter Elaine Vanderfield, smallgoods heiress from a protected background and theatre producer, who falls under Burke's spell as she watches his play. She has produced one of O'Hara's family dramas, but now here is Burke, a working-class hero of sorts who exposes the shallowness and hypocrisy of nice middle-class society.
When Elaine manages to get Burke an early release from jail and introduces him to O'Hara, already an admirer of Burke's play, Burke is unable to deal with the fickleness and pretentiousness of the theatre world. His attempts to write another play about the world beyond the prison walls fail miserably.
Enright now brings the two writers face to face. Like true mongrels, the two sniff each other, looking for a weakness they might turn into an opportunity.
Burke continues to emotionally, sexually and financially abuse those around him, including Elaine who marries him. In a self-serving world, he's out to get what he can. O'Hara is ultimately the only one who has the inner strength to stand up to Burke and the two end up admiring and even caring for each other.
ongrels is about the tension between the painful pursuit of artistic expression and survival in a money-driven world. In this world, O'Hara's sister Dulcie represents an ordinary sort of goodness, offering herself for a kidney transplant operation for her brother.
The impressive set design by Brian Thomson is stark and colourless, with "REALISM" printed in huge letters across the upper level. Its purpose is to remind us that we are watching a play. These are not real people, not Jim McNeil and Peter Kenna, but dramatic characters. And here is my only reservation about the play. Things that are crucial in real life are only crucial in the theatre if the playwright makes us feel they are crucial. Neither Burke nor O'Hara undergo a real dramatic journey. Both are stuck in their own ways of coping with a hostile and ruthless world.
This aside, the production works. John Howard and Tony Sheldon as Burke and O'Hara cope well with demanding roles and the rest of the cast provide good back up, especially Glenn Hazeldine who plays various roles. Recommended.