They shoot young people, don't they?
Bring Down the House
A play by John Romeril
At the CUB Malthouse, South Melbourne
until May 31
Reviewed by Peter Boyle
It is 1997. In the smouldering ruins of what was once Melbourne, four young people flee the Sweepers, killer machines on a mission to exterminate unwanted and unemployable youth.
They meet by accident in an abandoned house, and while cautiously sharing their experiences, they recover some trust and try to make sense of a world seemingly gone mad. They plot an escape from the city, but rumour has it that the countryside has been wasted by ecological disaster.
Through one of the youth, Will, a schizophrenic who hears voices from past inhabitants of the abandoned house, we are given a glimpse of the history of this ugly new world. And here is where John Romeril's play distinguishes itself from many other plays, films or novels of anti-utopia. Romeril does not contrast 1997 with a sentimental picture of the good old days. Instead he suggests a continuity. In the early 1990s, we are reminded, they dismantled the welfare state, and even in the happy '60s life wasn't so sweet for some.
David Adamson's high-energy performance as Will carries this relatively short but fast-paced play which brings together an exciting mix of science fiction, popular music, dance, youth slang and the politics of desperation. Is Will mad or has the world really gone mad? Is this apocalyptic world all in their imagination or do they really kill people for being young? Well, they send death squads after poor youth in the slums of Brazil in 1992.