Early Williamson packs a punch
The Removalists
By David Williamson
New Theatre, Newtown
Friday-Sunday until 1 May
Review by Helen Jarvis
Written nearly 30 years ago, and becoming David Williamson's first major success in Australia before going on to London and then to become a film, The Removalists gives us a chance to revisit the early Williamson, to understand why he became a household name and to compare it with his prolific recent works, the two latest of which are currently in production in Sydney (Corporate Vibes by the Sydney Theatre Company and Face to Face by the Ensemble).
Director Daniel Skeffington explains the New Theatre's decision to include The Removalist in its 1999 season for its chronicling of police violence and abuse of power, which are again so obvious in our society, as well as for its relevance to socialist and working-class issues and to the New Theatre's ideology of "theatre for the people".
The continuing relevance of the play is highlighted by the display in the theatre foyer of recent newspaper clippings regarding the police shooting on Bondi Beach of Roni Levi, and the admission that Special Branch held files on many thousands of citizens.
The play is stark and violent, both verbally and physically, and the tension is maintained from its testy beginning to its terrible conclusion. Not one of the characters emerges with any sense of honour intact, and the way they deal with each other is brutish and cruel.
Sergeant Simmonds (William Haydon) — "23 years in the force and never had to arrest anyone ... or to use a firearm" — instead wields his authority to intimidate and to land strategic blows that don't leave a bruise. He starts out picking on his new Constable Ross (Daniel Hudson), straight out of police training school and eager to apply the new psychological police methods and unarmed combat skills.
Kenny Carter (Steve Anderton), a machinist with the Herald, violently abuses his wife Fiona (Martha Lott), and she seeks assistance from the local police, supported by her sister Kate Mason (Leanne Guihôt), who is married to a dentist and puts on airs, considering her sister to have married beneath her station.
The police go along with a plan to arrange for a removalist to come to Fiona and Kenny's house and take away the furniture to a new flat — Fiona is leaving with the baby and all the household goods.
The plan goes horribly wrong when Kenny is not at the pub as usual on a Friday night, but at home fighting with Fiona, when first the removalist and then the police arrive. The removalist (Shaughn Helliar), as the one person who was not implicated in the intrigue, could perhaps stop the course of events, but he chooses to go along with the police, to take the furniture and to turn his back on Kenny's plea for help.
Williamson continues to write biting exposés of unequal social relationships and abuse of authority in Australian society. But this early work shows him at his best, before the clever dialogue began to dominate the human drama. The Removalists is another strong production from the New Theatre.