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| John Wood and Guy Edmonds |
Crunch Time by
David Williamson. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney, February 19 – April 9, 2020.
Reviewed by
Frank McKoneFebruary 19
Director –
Mark Kilmurry; Set and Costume Designer –
Lauren Peters; Lighting Designer –
Nicholas Higgins; Sound Realiser –
Anthony LorenzCast (alphabetical)
Diane Craig (Helen);
Megan Drury (Susy);
Guy Edmonds (Luke);
Matt Minto (Jimmy);
Emma Palmer (Lauren);
John Wood (Steve)
Photos by Prudence Upton
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Diane Craig and John Woods
as Helen and Steve
in Crunch Time by David Williamson
Ensemble Theatre 2020 |
Crunch Time
is a quite harsh-sounding title for a realistic study of generational
succession told with some tenderness and humour. Perhaps, since the
author has announced that, after 50 years, this is definitely to be his
last play, he may be sensing a Sword of Damocles descending.
That’s
certainly the feeling David Williamson has given Steve, as he retires,
when he has to decide which son – the younger Jimmy with a Business
Management degree; or the elder Luke with a combined Engineering/Law
degree – will be given control of his highly successful engineering
company. The complex intra-family relationships are played out very
well indeed by John Wood, Matt Minto and Guy Edmonds – the father,
himself trained as an engineer and somewhere on ‘the spectrum’, knowing
that Jimmy’s social communication skills are essential for the
continuing and expanding success of the company, cuts the highly
intelligent but also autistic Luke off the Board.
Steve married
Helen because he was fascinated by her playing the cello – the Goldmark
Variations – when they were students. Diana Craig’s playing on stage at
the key moment of tenderness is a highlight. But, she points out, the
Goldmark is the only piece of music – and indeed the only work of art of
any kind – that Steve can recognise.
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Diane Craig and Megan Drury
as Helen and Susy |
Megan
Drury playing Jimmy’s wife Susy (they have three children) gives us the
most rational clear-sighted character in the play, recognising how she
was so attracted to Jimmy – and why so many other women were and still
are; and how she can become a genuine friend for Luke while they
supervise their combined grandchildren. Though Jimmy says he will
“never do it again”, we laugh with Susy and recognise her right to
independence.
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Megan Drury and Matt Minto
as Susy and Jimmy |
Susy
also explains to Luke how being ‘ordinary’ is the right thing for him,
even though Emma Palmer as Luke’s wife, Lauren, can’t stand his
insistence on being himself, which means stating with great accuracy
every truth, about her and everything else, any more. So she leaves the
children to him to find a less ‘ordinary’ life.
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Emma Palmer and Guy Edmonds
as Lauren and Luke |
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Guy Edmonds and Megan Drury
as Luke and Susy |
Of
course, rumours will abound that David Williamson has finally written
an autobiographical play, since he originally trained and even lectured
as an engineer, and finally married a writer (they met in 1971) who is
quoted on the ABC in 2009: “And Kristin says their blended family - two
of her children with her ex-husband, two from David's first marriage and
one mutual child ('They call him the love child') - cringe at their
bohemian tales.”
[
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-04-03/wifes-biography-turns-tables-on-david-williamson/1639908 ]
It
is true that this play’s family relationships feel to me more personal
in nature, but then I have reviewed formally only about a dozen of his
more than fifty plays. It is the character of Steve, facing up to
serious adversity, that brings up those feelings. John Wood’s
performance is so much deeper than being a character who represents a
man of a particular place and time. Whereas in the past I have seen
Williamson’s work as highly valuable “comedy of manners” social
commentary, this play – not only in Steve, but especially in Guy
Edmond’s Luke and Megan Drury’s Suzy – shows psychological understanding
of a different order, I think.
Of the playwriting and
production, I suspect there is more development work to do. It may be
Williamson’s last play, but perhaps he may not retire absolutely yet.
The performance by Diane Craig of Steve’s wife Helen needed to create
much more empathy in us, watching. The clue, for me, was in the
question on how Steve had rated Jimmy at 10, but Luke at only 8.5; while
Luke had rated his father at only 2, but his mother at 10.
As a
fly-on-the-wall audience member, I wanted to rate Helen at 10 but she
came through to me at about 6. Yet at the every end, she completely
unexpectedly reveals her ‘bad girl’ behaviour before meeting Steve – her
bohemian tale, I guess. It’s either in the writing, or maybe in the
directing, but Diane Craig’s performance needed to establish that aspect
of Helen’s character – the liveliness and warmth it implies – from
early in the play.
I also think that, in the directing, and
perhaps because of the writing, the first several scenes lost focus and
energy because they come through as not much more than exposition. They
tell us bits of the story, but it’s not until maybe 20 minutes in that
our attention begins to become focussed, and therefore engaged, in the
feelings of the characters as they interact. Then we begin to work out
for ourselves what is now and has been going on between these people.
The backstory needs to grow out of the immediate present, from the very
first scene.
It was, of course, a great privilege to be present
on the opening night of the last play of what I can only call (awfully)
an ‘iconic’ Australian playwright. I deliberately have not given away
too much here, because it’s important for me not to preempt your
expectations. There’s a depth of humanity in this play which should
catch you by surprise.
I think, finally, it’s not unreasonable to
point out the role of the Ensemble Theatre’s relationship with David
Williamson, and especially his relationship with Sandra Bates, who first
attended the classes of the Ensemble’s founder, Hayes Gordon, in 1968,
and was invited by him to become artistic director of the company in
1986.
Since 1995 Ensemble Theatre has staged “24 Williamson
plays…including 19 world premieres, and produced three national tours.”
Sandra Bates herself directed 15 of these in the boatshed in-the-round,
beginning with
Emerald City, as well as additionally directing the three plays,
Face to Face,
A Conversation and
Charitable Intent in the
Jack Manning Trilogy at The Concourse, in Chatswood in 2014, before handing over the artistic directorship to Mark Kilmurry in 2016.
David
Williamson has written on her retirement: "The Ensemble Theatre and I
have had a very fruitful relationship now for many years. I love this
little theatre and I love the philosophy that guides it and that
philosophy has been driven for over thirty years now by one remarkable
woman, Sandra Bates.
“Her philosophy of theatre is disarmingly
simple. Program contemporary plays from Australia, America and
elsewhere that have something to say to contemporary society. Program
plays that tell a strong story that impacts on the audience rather than
plays consumed by their own cleverness that few relate to or
understand. Plays of emotional impact that tell stories about real
people facing real and pressing problems.
“The Ensemble is a theatre in which storytelling about contemporary society comes first and that's what I love about it.”
Indeed.
[see
http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/sandra-bates-retire-ensemble ]
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| Emma Palmer as Lauren |
© Frank McKone, Canberra
