Melbourne Theatre Company & Sydney Theatre Company co-production
Playhouse Melbourne Arts Centre, April 26 to May 26, 2012
Reviewer: Kate
Herbert
Stars:****
Geoff Morrell in Australia Day, MTC
IF YOU WANT SOCIAL SATIRE and some huge laughs at the expense of – well – just about everyone in
our sun-drenched country, Jonathan Biggins’ Australia Day is just the ticket.
In a smallish,
coastal Aussie town, six members of the local Australia Day Planning Committee
meet to plan a memorable Australia Day with citizenship ceremony, children’s
choir, sausage sizzle, SES display, 20-20 cricket match and other cliché
activities.
What can go wrong
will go wrong and everything does go wrong, which provides a rich source of
comedy for the skilful cast playing recognisable Australian types who cannot
even agree on what kind of sausage to barbecue.
The ambitious,
self-serving mayor (Geoff Morrell) stumbles to manage conflicts arising between
bleeding-heart, Green council member, Helen (Alison Whyte), and Wally (Peter
Kowitz), the conservative, bigoted, country Aussie who resists multiculturalism
or any change in his hometown.
Robert (David James)
is just a good bloke who wants the celebrations to run smoothly, Marie (Valerie
Bader), a CWA member, struggles to understand Twitter and Facebook and Chester
(Kaeng Chan), the perky, young teacher, makes a joke of every racist comment
about his Vietnamese heritage.
The belly laughs of
the opening scene arise from the Australian slang and behaviour as well as the
clash of ideologies and potted political rhetoric.