By Rama Gaind
Play: The Removalists
Where: Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 37 Reed Street, Greenway, ACT
Performances: June 17, 8pm; June 18, 2pm & 8pm; June 19, 5pm;
June 23, 8pm; June 24, 5.30pm & 9pm;
June 25, 2pm & 8pm; June 26, 5pm
Tickets: Adults: $28, Conc: $25
Bookings: 6293 1443
Australian playwright David Williamson’s The Removalists captured audiences when it first premiered – and its message is just as relevant today – four decades later.
The play is bold and is about power: those who gain power, who lose it and those who abuse and misuse power. Power is, perhaps, the ultimate source of status.
The Removalists, which begins its Canberra season at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre on June 17 and continues until June 26, addresses violence, specifically domestic violence, and the abuse of power and authority.
A young policeman’s first day on duty becomes a violent and highly charged initiation into law enforcement. The play features Duncan Ragg as Kenny Carter and Sean Ladlow as Sergeant Dan Simmons.
This confident interpretation by Free Rain, highlights that Australian society was born in violence. Once a pattern of violence is accepted for any situation, it becomes acceptable in all circumstances.
The momentum of The Removalists hinges on several moments when any of the characters could stop the violence just by speaking out. But no one speaks.
In the face of moral passivity and inaction, the outcome becomes progressively inevitable.
Written in 1971, The Removalists was Williamson’s first large-scale success and premiered (directed in Sydney by John Bell for Nimrod) in the same month in Melbourne as the equally successful Don’s Party.
Apparently based on a story told to Williamson in a pub by an actual removalist; the men in the play explore their own sources of power through sexual intimidation and physical violence.
The tensions between the characters and their various manifestations of power along with a strong sense of realism create an extraordinarily confronting piece of theatre.
Williamson’s genius also enables The Removalists to be a very funny play, remarkable in its ability to comfortably blend the tense drama and lively comedy.
The Removalists is so well written it gets its issues and themes across to contemporary audiences with relevance and wit. Ideologies and attitudes may have changed, but The Removalists rings true, given that there are still pockets of entrenched misogyny, bent cops, abusive husbands and, moreover, no end of violent acts. There is an essential truth to the text that parallels modern social and power relationships.
It retains its edge, with ability to shock and, above all, there’s a delicious sense of humour.
The basic totalitarianism, the disagreement between the sexes that often passes for human relationships – are discoveries which audiences applauded in David Williamson.
The Removalists is rightly regarded as a key work in the study of Australian drama.
