Hmmm... okay, okay, how do I feel after reading this... It's weird. Some of it was bad. A lot. Sometimes I kept going "stop! Stop the characters talking.?" Whenever anyone spoke about the environment or climate change or random names were inserted (Kerry O'Brien! Nick Minchin!) God, there was a lot of talk about climate change. So much talk about climate change.
It didn't feel real. The original was written from a place of honesty and frustration. Characters like Don and Mal and Cooley were brilliantly alive. It was a marvel of stage craft. The female characters weren't great but the world was skillfully evoked.
People here don't seem real. The statements feel cribbed from blogs or opinion pieces.
The teenage granddaughter Belle watches vampire movies and hates her father's new girlfriend and... that's it. Don's son Richard hates working in advertising and is infatuated and... that's it. Richard's lover is selfish and.... that's it? Why the f*ck are these characters in a sequel to Don's Party? Why should we care? Did one of Williamson's sons leave their wife or something? That's no excuse to take up a great chunk of this play on these new characters.
Why pick the 2010 election? Because it was there? A female was elected PM for the first time but none of the characters here seem to care. Williamson should have held off until 2013. I guess he wasn't to know that (he did seem to sense it).
And yet... and yet...
Sometimes this rings true. There's just not enough of those times. Mack has died... Don says it hit him hard... but the characters barely discuss it. Other bits are more effective. The couples engaged in wife swapping, which shocks the kids, which I did like... Jenny had an abortion to Cooley - that's cool. Mal went to prison, which was great. Don wrote a book about them all which upset them which was good... Cooley is on oxygen and votes Liberal - I get that. The characters of Jenny, Kath and Helen are actually stronger here than in the original. I like how Don and Helen had a more serious thing. That was good. This isn't a write off.
Williamson seems unsure how to pitch Don. He and Kath are together, but Don is optimistic, satisfied with his place in the world, it seems... his wife got a degree, his kids are successful in their careers... he's lost his dramatic power
This could have been so much better. Remove the younger generation (they can be referred to but not seen). Reduce talk about climate change by 90%. Have Mack's death mean more. Mack and Jody had a connection - why not use her? Why not base it more on Williamson's life and have him successful and with a new wife (Helen) and have his old friends hate him? Or have Don and Helen decide to run away during this party. Bring back back that Liberal voting couple, Jody and Simon they were great value (Simon could have gone into business with Cooley). I'd bring in Kerry the artist and maybe even Evan too. Make Kerry a lesbian and she has hooked up with Jenny or something.
William wrote a classic. Why did he junk half his characters?
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