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AUSTRALIAN THEATRE

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH by Lally Katz (2011)

CONTEXT:
The play
 Set in 2007 whilst Kevin Rudd was prime minister (2007)
 Mary St, a suburban setting
 Politically focused on increased public participation (tying in with the theme of
communities being there for one another).

Australia
 Written in 2011
 Julia Gillard was prime minister.
 Politically there was a large focus on community involvement with one another, whilst
simultaneously reflecting the fear of refugees in Australia during this time – this ties
together with both themes of isolation and community.

European refugees in Australia

 After the war European states were suffering with their own citizens and with the tasks of
reconstruction. The international response to the refugee crisis took both legal and
organisational form, guaranteeing a 'right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum
from persecution'.
 Most Hungarian immigrants came to Australia after World War II and after the Hungarian
Revolution of 1956. Before the outbreak of World War II, Australia took 6,475 settlers from
central Europe, consisting mainly of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany's discrimination and
threats.
PURPOSE:
Katz wished to reflect upon and comment on the changing nature of relationships in Australia in
the face of multiculturalism executed through a realist play with absurdist conventions.
QUOTE/CONVENTION THEME MEANING
Use of “Martin” Unrealistic expectations In the face of change it is
impossible to guess reality.
Ana’s ‘Sixth sense’
“Stupid Kitty vaiting like crazy Friendship Neighbourhood Watch
person for the ghost to call. explores the unlikely
This boy vill never calling. He is friendships that can be found
dead." in those around us, however it
also explores that pain that
follows with the betrayal of
“Ana is all the time Ana. Solo trust in a friendship. Catherine
una Ana! Solo una Ana!” once infatuated by Ana’s
stories is bewildered by her
WORKSHOP: Ana and own past, leaving behind the
Catherine on opposing sides of friendships Ana attempts to
the stage symbolising their foster.
distance.

“I have many sad story. Von Seeking refuge/imprisonment Toward the end of the play the
time three men do the pee pee audience is introduced to the
on my legs….Because I am the hardships Ana faced in
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refugee with infection – only Hungary, witnessing her

vay!” husband having an affair to
which she attempts an
“All her life Ana been the abortion however is caught in
prisoner, and now should be Yugoslavia and is sent to a
the prisoner even in her prison camp for 5 years. She
death? No. Not Ana.” later escapes to be caught in
Italy and stay for another 5
WORKSHOP: Ana sits alone years in a camp.
centre stage clutching her bag
with a spotlight on her, Because of this, Ana has
highlighting her isolation but trouble trusting people
her solidarity as strength. especially those in power
positions that she is meant to
inherently trust. As a result,
she refuses to go to hospice
despite demands from doctors.
“Never anymore vill the Grief A sense of community is
flowers grow beneath this lacking during times of strife
vindow / Von person I love and grief, evident through the
from this house has gone gypsy’s swan song about Ana’s
Never to come Never, never father as her and her brother
anymore”. attempt to ‘pick up the pieces’
of their father.
WORKSHOP: Ana, acting as a
small child, stands behind a Catherine's grief has made her
window frame looking out as detach from the world, unable
the Gypsy sings. to work and she has developed
obsessive compulsive
KEN: "I'm making sandwiches, behaviours, including ironing,
you want one?" and not eating. Catherine's
CATHERINE: "No. I've eaten eating disorder is mentioned
already." by other character, particularly
KEN: "What did you eat? as she doesn't seem to want to
Catherine thinks for a moment eat.
before answering, it's obvious
she's lying.
CATHERINE: A sandwich
KEN: That's such a pathetic lie.
I'm making you a sandwich.
Symbolism of the frog and the Freedom – or the lack thereof Ana loved frogs as a child,
butterfly pattern maybe providing a sense of
freedom, but in this scene the
“The frogs eat all the butterfly. frog is strong, eats the
Frog ate the butterfly butterfly and gets away. Ana
material.” too manages to escape –
perhaps why they’ve remained
a symbol of her strength and
intuition and why she keeps
them represented in her
house.
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The silver butterfly is the

pattern on the material that
Ana’s mother sends her to buy.
It represents young Ana in
Hungary where she used her
‘sixth sense’ to evade a
threatening serial killer. Being
entwined in Ana’s story,
Catherine is naïve and follows
the man while Ana uses her
sense to run free. The silver
butterfly in this scene is
symbolic of the freedom Ana’s
quick thinking and sense has
offered and still the child-like
innocence of Catherine to
follow the man.

LIFE WITHOUT ME by Daniel Keene (2010)

CONTEXT:
 Play was written in 2010.
 Global Financial Crisis 2007/2008 – Australia was still recovering from the uncertainty felt
at the time.
 Many people lost who they were – the financial security and independence they may have
had was taken away – the future was not secure.
 Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard leadership – a lack of confidence grew in the political system. The
prime ministership became somewhat of a farce itself!
PURPOSE:
 Characters represent the social concerns about the future of Australia post GFC. John has
forgotten who he is and where he should be, Roy and Alice become people they are not in
order to build a future, Tom and Ellen pretend to be others in order to escape the
revolving nature of life.
 Living in purgatory, suspended in a state of limbo excluded from where the real action is.
We wish for the characters to discover that the point of life is to live, to participate and to
commit.
QUOTE/CONVENTION THEME PURPOSE
Physical theatre Absurdism Perpetuates slapstick humour
 Light bulb – opening in order to convey the futility
sequence with of life.
umbrella and revolving
door
 Repeated actions

“He isn’t quite tall enough to

reach the light fitting; he
stands on his toes teetering on
the brink of falling. […] Nigel
falls behind his desk with a
sickening thud”
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“My life just seems to go on, Isolation The hotel represents a conduit
but…without me in it.” for lonely people during a
search for meaning.
“…not yet properly arrived, or
not entirely departed. You’re in
between. A person is always
somewhere, but in a hotel
lobby…where are you
exactly?”
“What’s life given us? You Loss Grieving the happiness, the felt
were happy once, so was I. once naïve.
Neither of us are happy Isolation
anymore. Is that all there is to
it?”

BLACK COMEDY

OCTOBER by Ian Wilding (2007)

CONTEXT:
The play
 Set in a Post-9/11 context, the October afterward (serves as an extended metaphor).
 The event sparked international fear and paranoia about the threat to national security in
a way that had never happened before. Wilding’s play explores the social and human
impacts of these events.
 The play questions how far we (and our governments) are willing to go in order to
maintain a sense of security in our lives.
 2007 Griffin Theatre set design by Jo Briscoe which consisted of sliding aeroplane-style
portal windows that contained symbols of a plane. They also used seats as part of the set
that suggest an airport waiting lounge.
 Nick Wishart’s sound design for the original production use the sound of a violent plane
crash in the blackout moment before the opening scene.

Black Comedy
 This topic explores, theoretically and experientially, modern comic plays from different
cultures that deal with what is often uncomfortable or suppressed.
 Students must investigate the nature of comedy and use humour to confront an audience
with the pain, loss, the controversial or the taboo.
 Executed by engaging with the forms, styles, techniques and conventions of the plays,
students assess how this affects audiences; often making us laugh despite discomfort.
 The ways ideas are presented to inform the human experience and whether laughter
provides a cathartic experience in these works.

Taboo
 A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding
association with a particular person, place, or thing.
 Many taboos have developed around physical exposure. For example, the use of violence
must remain a taboo in our society.
PURPOSE:
Through the conventions of black comedy, Wilding was able to make a statement on the socio-
political international climate during the October of our lives highlighting the exponential distrust
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in authority figures affecting our relationships.

QUOTE/CONVENTION THEME MEANING
“You’ve had underwear go Loss of Innocence – corruption An authority figure acting in a
missing. […] Silk? I couldn’t (Dick) way contrary to society’s
imagine you tolerating expectations.
anything else”
“How do you feel about Loss of trust and true justice in Joking about dropping
turning north-east and our society bombing in the Middle East.
dropping this oily bird in Kabul
Central?” Allowing torture of prisoners
(War on Terror).
“I said I love you”. Disconnection in relationships …
“And I promise not to crash the
plane.”
“I fucked her, I know. I fucked Black comedy Confrontation in profanity
your wife” shocks audiences ergo
providing humour
“I’m pissed off. Thoroughly, Femme Fatale and Groucho
pissed off.”
“And hormonal as hell I bet.”

HOMECOMING by Harold Pinter

CONTEXT
The play
 The Homecoming is set in a working-class flat in North London in the 1960s. The play's
setting is important for two main reasons.
 It primarily offers a glimpse into the intersection between gender and class issues, and
second, it differs completely from Teddy and Ruth's life in the United States, offering Ruth
sexual liberation and freedom.
 The language used in the play, especially the dialogue surrounding women, is often
degrading, offensive, and distasteful. The language used in the play reflects the
patriarchal, rough-and-tumble setting of working-class London.

PURPOSE
The desire for power and dominance. All of the characters want to assert these things over others,
whether it is verbally or physically or sexually.
QUOTE/CONVENTION THEME MEANING
He looks at her, still kneeling. Femineity Ruth regains her femineity as
[…] the dominate female figure in
“Do you hear me?” this house, serving both as a
He raises his face to her. maternal and partner figure to
“Kiss me.” the men in the house.

WORKSHOP:
When Max says “Do you hear
me?... Kiss me”, in a class
workshop, he experiments
with lighting. We staged the
scene with three different
colours of lighting. The first
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colour was red lighting to

symbolise the red-light district
in places with large amounts of
prostitution, representing the
role that I, as Ruth, chose to
play the matriarchal role.

“I was a model of the body” Femineity Motivations to seduce as well

as well as reminisce on her
traumatic experience and
purge her emotional baggage.

‘Bosom of the family’ Isolation Ruth as a sexual victim: the

fact that she is being
prostituted as a person, ‘the
bosom of the family’, referring
to her as a commodity.
Max. “Will I, you bitch”. Fragile masculinity We used the walking stick as a
prop in a class workshop to
Max grips his stick. convey Max’s fragile
masculinity and attempted
Lenny. “Oh Daddy. You’re not dominance over his children.
going to use your stick on me, Max used the walking stick as a
are you? [...] Don’t clout me weapon against Lenny, who
with that stick, Dad.” was negatively reciprocal to
the actions - using what some
could be highly effeminate
language in reference to
‘daddy’ to intimidate and
demean Max back.