Review: The removalists

Once again Sydney Theatre is presenting us with vintage Williamson. I've found these a mixed bag: I liked The Club a few years ago; hated Don's Party.

Like Don's Party, written two years before, The Removalists is a really unpleasant play. There isn't a character in it that I would want to spend time with. There is a small cast: an older, lazy, cynical, brutal policeman; a young recruit who is so raw he's bleeding emotion; a rich adulterous woman; her younger, rather feeble sister and her larrikin husband; and the removalist, a jobsworth type whose main concern is not to get involved with anything that might slow down his work. The way power works in relationships, both work and personal, is examined through these characters, with the older policeman and the older sister shown as being masters of manipulation. Both know how to work the world so that they can live exactly the lives they want. 

In this production small things have been changed to make it contemporary: a couple of tiny script changes and quite a few set details (eg digital cameras) and costumes (most obviously, the men wear contemporary police uniforms and the removalist wears a fluoro shirt). For me, this didn't work. The initial conversation between the policemen, especially, didn't reflect the reality of police work now. There were no computers or mobile phones in evidence. I think it would have been better to have presented it as a 1970s play, and let the audience draw the parallels with our world today, working out what (if anything) has changed.

So, extremely high standard of acting (the sergeant was so arrogant and sinister it was scary), but I didn't like the shift to contemporary life. Overall immensely depressing - unredeemed by the horrible ending.

Comments

[LynS]

Thanks for this. Despite your comments, I think I might have to see 'The Removalists'. I saw it sometime in the early 1970s at the Nimrod Theatre (the precursor of the Belvoir) when it was in Kings Cross (now the Stables Theatre). It seemed amazing at the time. People used to comment on Williamson's strength in capturing the Australian vernacular, and I remember clearly that when I saw this play there was a jolt of recognition of the language. It also represented masculine violence in a most direct, horrifying and Australian way that was both shocking and revealing. Personally, I would rather see a revival than a re-interpretation, but either way I'll be interested to see it again.

[M-H]

I think you're right, Lyn, he does capture the forceful speech and lack of pretence around language. But that's not a shock any more, and isn't enough to carry the play as it once might have been. When you've seen the rape in Women of Troy, well... you may not be shock-proof, but you probably won't find this shocking.

[Jocelyn]

Huh. That doesn't sound so good, in spite of the good acting. I have a tough time with storylines in which I can't identify with/like at least a little even one of the characters..

[bernard]

Having read the previous comments i can only conclude that these people must have seen a different play to the one i attended on February the 6th.
The acting was inconsistent and there were dropped or fluffed lines on numerous occasions.The violence was also not believable as it jumped from stylisation to realism with neither working.
The most shocking thing about this play is that it was chosen in the first place. Perhaps they should ask the removalist to remove this one from their season!