Page 12 Theatre-AustraH a Sept-Oct, 1976.
QUEENSLAND COMPANY
THEATRE
THE DEPARTMENT Richard Fotheringham
THE DEPARTMENT by David Williamson. S.G.I.O. Theatre (opened 18.viii.76.) Director, Joe MacColum; Designer, James Ridewood. Gordon, BRIAN COX; Bobby, DOUGLAS HEDGE; Sue, GAYE POOLE; Hans, MARK HEMBROW; Robby, JOE JAMES; Peter, BRUCE PARR; John, PHIL MOYE; Al, PETER KOWITZ; Owen, IAN DYSON, Myra, KATE WILSON
M ark Hembrow, Bruce Parr, P hil Moye and Douglas Hedge. Photo: Q.T.C.
The Q.T.C. is concluding the year with a fanfare of nationalism — David Williamson's The Department, Jack Hibberd's A Toast to Melba, and Alan Hopgood's A n d The Big Men Fly. As far as the scripts are concerned it's not a loud blast, since all three have been tried and proved elsewhere. But The Department, the first leg of the treble, has been given the benefit of a strong clear production with barely a trace of ockerismorconscious comedy, and it serves both playwright and actors well. Williamson's most obvious virtue as a writer is that he really does ferret out the character types we all approximate to, and gets from an Australian audience the laugh of recognition and the whispered "isn't he just like ...”. He drawsalmosttotallyfrom hisown experiences, and when after having lectured at a Technical Institute called Swinburne he writes a play about a staff meeting in an Institute called Milton, once suspects that only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. It's a virtue however that has not always helped productions of his plays. It's such a rare experience for an Australian actor to sit down to a first reading of a script and to also experience that shock of recognition, that as a consequence many productions have wildly overindulged in joyous larger than life caricaturizations of some of our vocal accents, physical mannerisms, and minor moral failings. It didn't matter particularly in Don's Party which doesn't aim much past such gems of observation, but it led to some very forced interpretations of a play like The Removalist which does have more to say about Australian soceity than the sum total of such trivia. The Q.T.C. production of The Department has if anything overcompensated for this, and it's a pleasant change. One of Joe McColum's consistent virtues as a director is that he has the ability to draw strong and mature performances from actors; driving each of them to reject glib or easy assumptions about
their characters. The department he has peopled is a cosmopolitan one, and Williamson's ability to write funny lines is never allowed to break up the progression of the story. In the careful and restrained naturalism of this approach the inability of some of the less experienced cast members to consistently achieve the level of convincing characterization demanded of them makes the end result uneven. But there are enough good performances to carry it off. It's a production which also shows very clearly the scenes which are well written and those which are not. Williamson is at his best in social comedy, and his scenes get progressively better as more characters arrive on the stage. As each of them retreats behind a sophisticated and sarcastic public persona, the wit and cynicism become sharper and funnier. When the persona drops (as in monologues or two-handed scenes) the writing becomes awkward and the cliches neither funny nor believable. It's the sort of unevenness that larger than life playing could gloss over — and in the process gloss over whatever serious depths the play might contain. The Q.T.C. has decided it's a "ferocious” comedy with something to say, and have chosen a style which says it very well. The most disappointing thing amid the oleasure that this gives is that when we are allowed to consider so clearly what the play has to say it becomes apparent that it really hasn't much to say at all. Its the story of an Engineering Department staff meeting set in the Thermodynamics Lab, and there is an abundanceof Ibsenesque symbolism lurking in the background (Thermodynamics for starters is concerned w ith turning heat into mechanical energy). At the meeting the bumptious and conniving Head of Department (Robby) manipulates and blasts his way through the disagreements which angryyoung genius (Peter), serious minded radical (John), and humanities ring-in (Myra), have about the