Polemical theatre without gimmicks
Face To Face
By David Williamson
Directed by Sandra Bates
Ensemble Theatre, Sydney
Until May 8
Review by Brendan Doyle
David Williamson goes back to his working-class roots with his latest play, Face To Face, which dramatises a new method of justice called "community conferencing". Not since his first hit The Removalists have we seen such bold, intense theatre that seizes hold of social reality like a bull terrier and won't let go. This is polemical theatre, totally credible, funny and very uncomfortable.
There is no set, just a blank wall with a row of chairs facing the audience. The participants in the community conference wander in, to be greeted by the convener, Jack Manning, and the action starts.
Nine characters have come here to "spill their guts", as one of them says, and that's enough to create a powerful theatre experience.
Glen, a young scaffolding worker, tells how he was sacked by his boss Greg Baldino and, in a fit of anger, rammed his car into the back of Baldino's new Mercedes. Rather than going to court, Glen has been given the option of discussing his actions in the conference. With him are his mother and his best mate Barry. On the other side are Baldino, his wife Claire, his personal assistant Julie, his foreman Richard, accountant Therese and Glen's co-worker Luka.
What had seemed a simple case of vandalism turns out to be a lot more, and all nine characters are intimately involved in one way or another. Glen had previously assaulted the foreman over a practical joke on Glen that went horribly wrong. And Luka had been called a "rapist and killer" by the foreman because of his Serbian background.
Morale in Baldino's company is abysmal. The foreman convinced the workers to sideline the union and accept the boss's enterprise agreement, which resulted in the lowest pay in the industry.
"We're the dregs and we know it", says Luka. "That's why we go slow and sabotage jobs when we can." The accountant reveals that he has been paying himself such a handsome salary that the company is on the edge of bankruptcy! To top it all off, Julie reveals she's been screwing the boss.
Convener Manning has to make sense of all this and come up with an agreement that will keep Glen out of prison, something that is achieved only after bitter confrontations that prove the totally self-serving actions of Baldino and the miserable working conditions of his employees whose racism and sadism are futile expressions of their own exploitation.
Williamson has witnessed community conferences and read transcripts of them. He was excited by the sheer drama they engender. "In a society which tries to keep most emotions well and truly hidden, it was startling and illuminating to see emotions tumbling out uncensored and raw", Williamson writes. Although a real workplace conference would run for many hours, until a resolution is reached, Williamson's art is to compress it into 90 minutes.
Face to Face is theatre without gimmicks — no set, no lighting, no music. Just very competent actors who seem to believe totally in what they are doing, a text that carries all the raw emotion and effective direction by Sandra Bates.
If the function of theatre is to help create a better society, then Face To Face is in that noble tradition. Here is a mature playwright serving the public interest with a play that tells it like it is — and it's not a pretty sight.
The conclusion of the "community conference" drew generous applause. Audiences can tell when it's the real thing.