After the misfire of Celluloid Heroes Williamson went back to personal works with this tale of a modern day (then marriage) resulting in one of his most personal plays. One assumes it's personal.
It is certainly peak boomer with its whining middle class leads, academics and well off but not as much as they want, dealing with kids and affairs and blaming their parents for their problems and doing secondments overseas.
But it has, not surprisingly, tremendous authenticity - Williamson goes there and the results are his most fleshed out leads, particularly one of his strongest female characters (uncertain, resentful, ambitious, adulterous, humorous), presumably because he's inserted Kristen.
Structurally he doesn't quite seem to nail it: it starts in Denmark, they meet Erik the babysitter, then it comes back to Australia, we meet Stuart's parents, then it becomes battle of the sexes in Australia and Stuart loses his job and it seems to go forward several years. But I couldn't think of how else to do what Williamson wants to do and the chopping between scenes works smoothly, better than say in Top Silk.
It's funny and the theme of how much a partner has to give up in a marriage hasn't dated. It's a fascinating, thought provoking, lumpy work. I don't think it should have been filmed though.
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