Battle of Waterloo

An Australian play with a distinctively local story has been as rare as a lunar eclipse under reign of Andrew Upton/Cate Blanchett at the Sydney Theatre Company. So at the outset it was refreshing and exciting to see the company’s considerable resources devoted to this story.

In the inner city suburb of Waterloo (just a stone throw from Belvoir which apparently bid for this play too ) are two toweringly unattractive public housing blocks.  Playwright Kylie Coolwell is a local resident.

Her aim was to make the audience look beyond perceptions of Waterloo as an entirely impoverished drug and crime riddled housing estate, and instead celebrate that they are part of a thriving community who “support each other through the myriad of challenges that being on the poverty line brings.”

The first act was like a high cholesterol episode of Redfern Now. There is sex, drugs, rock n roll and flashing police sirens.

In the high rise unit conditions are cramped. The feeling of living on top of each other was portrayed evocatively through having the beds, toilet and kitchen squeezed together on stage and effective placement of balconies around the stage.

In the black soap opera, Ray (Luke Carroll) has just got out of prison. He finds the high rise unit claustrophobic. He tries to go down the path of rehabilitation but battles the temptations along the way.

His girlfriend Cassie (Shari Sebbens) is walking the education ladder to escape the cycle of poverty. She’s almost finished a fashion design course.

At home holding things together is Aunt Mavis (Roxanne McDonald). Adding to the mix is the hilariously high voltage Sissy (Shareena Clanton) – who is struggling to kick a drug habit, a man on the run Leon (Guy  Simon), a  promising Rugby League teenager Jack (James Slee) and the occasional visit from Uncle Milo (Billy McPherson).

It moves at a cracking pace and there are some searing moments which will be difficult to erase from your memory for many a year.

In the second act some characters climb up a few rungs of the ladder whilst others slip down.

Battle of Waterloo succeeds as a piece of entertainment and it also succeeds in making you find something to like in all the characters. But as it is written as a love letter to the playwright’s community it falls a little short as a piece of drama.

In real life not everyone is lovable rogue. There are Aboriginal men who commit crimes that bring shame on their community. It lacked one character to do something that would have made the audience look beneath the surface, to search for answers as to what are the underlying circumstances that leads such a disproportional number of Aboriginal people in prison.

David Spicer

Images: Guy Simon, Shari Sebbens & Luke Carroll; James Slee, Guy Simon, Luke Carroll & Shari Sebbens; and Shari Sebbens, Luke Carroll, Guy Simon, James Slee, Roxanne McDonald, &Billy McPherson in Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Battle of Waterloo. Photographer:  Lisa Tomasetti.