Its heart is in the right place. Nice to see an elder statesman playwright engaging in contemporary politics. Some funny lines -I especially love the dispute over lego. It has one of the best concepts of a Williamson play: a conservative judge finds his birthday party interrupted when his daughter drags in a fugitive refugee. The right audience would love this.
I found it terrible. One of Williamson's worst. People just spout things as if culled from the opinion pages of The Age. No nuance. Not even that much research, it seems. A lot of speeches. A lot of re-used tropes and characters: the lesbian sister and Christian brother was in Brilliant Lives for instance, a far better play which could dramatise the issue. It's on the nose to which you could argue "well it's just that sort of play" but then there's the lovely lego stuff and the mixture jays. The refugee is a 2020 noble savage (i.e. perfect only this case a medical student). Characters applauded speeches.
I did appreciate it mostly took place in real time and had decent suspense -the refugee turning up, the wife of one of the daughters working for Border Force. And this play has received some excellent reviews. It just wasn't for me.
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