Contemporary critics bagged the script for this. I think the critics were just incompetent and afraid of a show about black Australians. The script isn't amazing but it's solid - it builds to a great climax, the blinding of black Eddie by a racist white. It does admittedly exist uneasily alongside other subplots - black Don could work in the city as a lawyer but doesn't, to help his people; Peggy, is a former diner worker now a film star, a concept that isn't really needed (she could have simply had a higher education) but is at least different.
But the depiction of small town life is all too believable with its class divisions, racism, tension over jobs and real estate, bored small town men and women, focus around a diner.
The characters have meet on them probably because this was based on a longer play - the journo Clive who is in love with Peggy but who honestly also seems more interested in Don, Peggy who dreams of a better tomorrow (and is allowed to go off with the white guy), Merv the racist, Sally the bored grazier.
It's a shock to hear words like "boong" and what not - and the blinding of Eddie packs real punch.
No comments:
Post a Comment