Left - (front) Justin Stewart Cotta and Emma Jackson, (rear) Kate Raison, Andrew McFarlane and Georgie Parker. Cover - William Zappa, Justin Stewart Cotta and Georgie Parker. Photos - Steve LunamEver since David Williamson began saying that he would stop writing plays and yet in short order proceeded to keep generating new scripts, I have followed each new work with interest, keen to see what kind of ideas have compelled him to keep reemerging from this would-be retirement. As such, I would like to think that I did not enter Let the Sunshine with any particular cynicism, but nevertheless found myself thinking early on that this was shaping to be another example of what many (if not always necessarily myself) have criticized of the last decade or more of Williamson’s output for being: light, well-crafted, amusing yet predictable, and only addressing the lives of the upper-middle to wealthy classes. It’s an exaggerated view to be sure, but one I have often heard said by others with no small measure of eyerolling distain, as though to say “well, here we go again.”
I’m pleased to disappoint the cynics.
As there has already been a bit of an argy-bargy elsewhere in the press about Williamson taking potshots at the STC around the opening of this production, I don’t wish to engage here in the issue of Williamson’s place in the current theatre scene, or debate his comments on the merits of conventional storytelling versus directorial showboating. Rather, let’s talk about this play itself and its merits.
The show does start out a little humdrum, to be honest. There are some good laughs, certainly – Williamson could never be accused of having lost his touch when it comes to writing brilliant one-liners – but at first it all did seem a tad obvious, you feel that you know exactly where it’s all going. And in a sense you’d be right… but also very wrong indeed.
Essentially the play concerns two Baby Boomer couples living in Noosa who come from opposite ends of the spectrum. On the one hand there is Ros from the Sydney literati, married to the grumpy John Pilger-esque documentarian Toby, a dyed-in-the-wool crusading lefty who has made his career out of exposing governments, corporations and the ills of capitalism. Then we have Natasha, spendthrift trophy wife to Ron, a charming and chauvinistic alpha-male property developer whose aggressive overdevelopment of the Queensland coast has made him rich, and precisely the sort of right-wing tycoon that Toby despises. The two wives know each other from high school (although they were not friends), but the husbands have a total clash of beliefs, class and politics, so it’s quite evident this foursome is not going to get on, but then their adult children come to visit and things really take a turn.
Each couple has produced a flawed child that, in a familiarly Williamson fashion, are the notionally logical outcomes of their respective ideologies when applied to parenting. Ros and Toby’s son Rick is a struggling (you might say failed) musician who barely supports himself working in a pub and is riddled with a low self-esteem, his loving “follow your dream” upbringing having instilled him with inadequate drive to pursue his ambitions to the fullest. Conversely, Ron and Natasha’s daughter Emma has been brought up with the message that being top dog is the only acceptable option and has thus become a ferocious corporate lawyer, already wealthy in her own right but beginning to fray at the edges from the punishing workload and disillusioning soullessness of her profession, not to mention the much-suppressed ticking of her biological clock. These two offspring have both reached their thirties and found that something in their lives is wanting.
Naturally, given their total clash of values, personalities and stations in life, Emma and Rick instantly dislike each other, and with even more intensity than the enmity between their respective parents. And, of course, in very short order they fall into bed together. You see it coming a mile off, but it’s what happens next that becomes interesting.
While there are no huge dramatic twists or shocking revelations, the play nevertheless becomes quite an engrossing character drama as this pair not only stay together, but get married, go through some unexpected changes in circumstance, and have a baby. So as the two couple’s children change and grow together and a mutual grandchild enters the picture, the antagonistic Baby Boomers are forced to begin to accept each other, but it is not a smooth road for any of those involved.
Perhaps what makes this story so interesting is not only the engaging characters – which are well drawn, if a little straightforward – but particularly the themes that run through the play concerning how ideologies get passed down to new generations and yet the world moves on regardless. Taking place over two years and set against the backdrop of the end of Howard, the rise of Rudd, and the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis while referencing back to the Summer of Love, we see how both the disillusioned Toby and Ros have bitterly come to accept the death of all their 1970s idealism in a world increasingly consumed by greed and inhumanity, while the blinkered, arrogant Ron and oblivious Natasha are faced with a more current repudiation of their own worldview via the meltdown of the free market.
There are strong performances from all the cast, especially the highly sympathetic Georgie Parker as Ros, Emma Jackson as the volatile yet endearing Emma, and William Zappa, pitch-perfect as always, in the atypically understated role of Toby. With six engaging actors and Williamson’s progressively absorbing script, the production achieves some strong drama and plenty of laugh-out-loud comedy, which more than adequately compensates for some curiously uneven direction by Sandra Bates (the scene-changing blackouts became quite tedious) and a serviceable but awkward set by Graham MacLean.
Let the Sunshine is a play about Boomers and Gen-Xers, and will hopefully find an audience amongst other generations as well, for its look into the lives and creeds of those at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum and how such people can be brought together is undeniably an intriguing one.
Ensemble Theatre
LET THE SUNSHINE
by David Williamson
Director: Sandra Bates
Venue: Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall Street, Kirribilli, NSW, 2061
Dates: Previews: 7 – 13 May, opens Thurs 14 May, plays to 4 July, 2009
Times: Tue–Fri 8.15pm, Sat 5pm & 8.30pm, Sun 5pm, Thurs 11am
Tickets: $39 - $63 (booking charges may apply)
Bookings: 02 9929 0644 or www.ensemble.com.au
LET THE SUNSHINE TOUR:
The Street Theatre, Canberra
7 July – 11 July 2009
Bookings (02) 6247 1223 www.thestreet.org.au
Q Theatre, Penrith
14 July – 18 July 2009
Bookings (02) 4723 7600 www.jspac.com.au
Manning Entertainment Centre, Taree
21 July – 22 July 2009
Bookings (02) 4723 7600
Geelong Performing Arts Centre
5 August – 8 August 2009
Bookings (03) 5225 1200 www.gpac.org.au
