Reviews

The timing of director Michael Eustice in premiering Don Parties On in South Australia could not have been better planned. Quite apart from recent events in the United States that you may have heard about, the home-grown political scenario depicted on stage has a particular resonance these days that only the passage of time was capable of creating.

With weird and unforeseen synchronicity this play opened on the day we learned that Donald Trump would be the next President of the United States.  The play’s characters, Maggie (Olivia Monticciolo) and Grey (Matt Hickey) are thwarted, defeated and hope-less, so poisoned by alienation and failure that they can no longer identify or blame the causes – except themselves.  There may be ‘no more exciting time to be Australian’, but not for these two.  They’ve been left behind.  Worse, we sense they always would be. 

If you seek a light-hearted romp, written with wit and intelligence, this proudly accessible version of Tartuffe should fit the bill – for most of its length, at least. On the other hand, despite a gallery of memorable and effective performances to be found in the ensemble, you may well be disappointed by Tartuffe himself, a figure who proves (at least for this reviewer) more effective when talked about – in admiration, anticipation, or revulsion - by others than when making his own presence felt ‘in the flesh’.

Helen and Fraser are a pretentious and privileged Sydney couple. Their relationship is hardly comfortable – attempts at intimacy are awkward – but their lives are turned upside down when they look after their friends’ dog. Sweet Phoebe runs away and they become desperate, doing increasingly strange things, in an attempt to find her.