Astonishingly terrible play which one feels obliged to defend because it was pilloried by Bolt and Henderson, but after you acknowledge that those two are terrible men who've damaged the cultural fabric of the nation, this is a bad play.
It's got a fantastic central idea- a tale of two brothers, one conservative, one a small l liberal - and a great set up - the conservative has killed someone.
But Rayon writes with no empathy, no understanding, "Eggs", the bad brother, not only kills, he finds he enjoys killing, he orders refugees not to be kicked up, he's a bad husband, a father who drove one son to drug taking and betrays another one, a bad brother, a bad uncle. Not that the other characters are much better - the women sigh and are trampled, the "flaw" of the liberal brother is he was a pants man, the refugee is a stock wailer (a trope in many pieces from left and right wing writers - no humanity, no humour, no complexity, just wailing).
Alright so it's didactic, well Clifford Odets could be didactic - but Odets could use theatre. This starts off promisingly with a murder and then three interlocking speeches but then it's all short scenes, done TV stye. The tension inherent in the set up - a murder is committed and people are on their way - which really should have been the whole focus, is thrown away.
This feels like it was written by a fired up first year uni student who researched it by reading The Age and talking to a racist uncle, not an experienced playwright.
No comments:
Post a Comment