The Club by David Williamson
by HIT Productions
Athenaeum Theatre, Aug 17 to until Aug 19, then touring Victoria
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
The Club by David Williamson, although first staged in 1977, is surprisingly reflective of many issues still facing Australian Rules Football teams: money rather than team spirit or tradition govern the management of clubs; coaches are sacked; administrators control decisions; players are bought for absurd sums; and bitter disputes are played out in the media. The main difference is the number of zeros after the dollar sign.
The play records the turning point in the 70s when VFL was heading to AFL, coaches were no longer ex-players from the team they coached and businessmen took over clubs.
This popular Williamson play encapsulates what thing he did best: write about Australian men engaged in macho competitive battles. Ted, the blustering President, (Denis Moore) conspires with his oily administrator, Gerry (Simon Wilton), and bully-boy board member, Jock (John Wood), to replace ex-player /coach, Laurie (Christopher Connelly), and to buy top players in order to win the club’s first premiership in 19 years.
The club is riddled with sabotage, betrayal, backstabbing and resentment. If you want a secret kept do not tell any of these men.
The play, directed skilfully by Bruce Myles, is big, broad and very funny even if you know nothing about footy. Wood has a field day with the role of Jock, playing him with a jovial thuggishness and relishing Jock’s unwitting flirtation with marijuana. Jock is the unreconstructed male: he biffs his wife and the players, drinks too much and childishly boasts about his record of playing 282 games and coaching four premierships.
Moore is an hilarious combination of wheedling and autocratic behaviour as the ambitious President, Ted. Despite Ted’s idiocy we feel sympathy for his final predicament. Connelly is credible and substantial as Laurie, the moral, loyal coach. Wilton makes Gerry the consummate Machiavellian manipulator, a smiling villain, the one who cares nothing for the club but will be the last man left standing.
Player behaviour on and off the field still makes hot media gossip and disillusioned golden boy Geoff, who feels that chasing a pigskin ball around is futile, is no exception. Guy Kable plays him with an edge of arrogance mixed with adolescent confusion. Christopher Parker is charming and boyish as the bolshie Danny who is loyal to Laurie.
There is something all too familiar about the men in this club that makes them great comedy.
By Kate Herbert
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