Not for the faint hearted or easily offended, Australia Day is the brain child of political satirist, Jonathan Biggins.
The play follows a small town’s Australia Day Planning Committee as they try to organise celebrations for the big day. The six members of the committee are wildly different, led by Geoff Morrell (Grass Roots and Blue Heelers) as the Mayor of Coriole. Alison Whyte (Frontline and Satisfaction) plays Greens council member Helen, David James plays Robert, the Mayor’s right-hand man, Peter Kowitz is Wally, a Coriole local who is rough around the edges, Valerie Bader plays CWA member Marie and making his Melbourne Theatre Company debut is Kaeng Chan, who plays primary school teacher Chester.
The play looks at the different political ideologies held by the Australian public and is reflected within each character. Directed by Richard Cottrell, the play takes on serious political and ethical issues mainly through humor, with the play containing almost every racist and politically incorrect joke one can think of, Peter Slipper even gets a mention. Although, the play takes a dark turn with the audience left gasping at the end of act one due to an incident between Helen and bigoted Wally.
There’s strong language in the play, and most of the jokes are politically incorrect, but put within the context of the play, Australia Day gets away with it. It is definitely aimed at a (dare I say, older) audience with political knowledge, and is designed to make them question what is Australia? What does being Australian mean?
The play is slightly too long (running for 2 hours and 25 minutes with interval), and act two drags before coming to an end. However, each actor brings something special and unique to their character, and despite perhaps not enjoying each characters ideals and values, they’re portrayed brilliantly and are entertaining to watch.
Australia Day is worth going to see, as long as you’re not bothered by language and can handle the racist undertone represented within the characters, and if you can, you’ll be rewarded with an interesting image of Valerie Bader, who’s character Marie steals the show, that won’t be leaving your mind anytime soon.
Running time: 2 hours and 25 minutes including a 20-minute interval
Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse
Season Dates 21 April to 26 May 2012
Opening Night Thursday 26 April 2012 at 8pm
Tickets from $56 (Under 30s just $33)
Booking Details The MTC Theatre Box Office 03 8688 0800 or mtc.com.au; Arts Centre Melbourne 1300 182 183 or artscentremelbourne.com.au
