Reviews

The timing of this production provides the opportunity to reflect on the recent passing of same-sex marriage legislation in Australia. The play was first staged in 2005 and was an immediate hit for its raw yet tender examination of homosexuality. Only the absence of technology gives away its age. This revival highlights how the themes remain just as hard-hitting today.

Four engaging, talented actors tell stories of the experience of women and AIDS - from before the condition even had a name, let alone any treatment.  They tell of bafflement and fear, of ignorance, misdiagnosis, prejudice, rejection (including by families), misinformation, euphemisms, evasions, physical and mental suffering, and shame.  But there is also resilience, kindness, love, acceptance, unstinting efforts to find a cure – or at least amelioration – and the formation of support groups and communities of sufferers and carers. 

According to the Ensemble’s program, David Williamson has written ‘more than fifty-three produced plays’, though whether the current one is No. 54 is unclear. At any rate it’s a hell of a lot and, with an apparent lock on the Ensemble’s prime-time, two-month slot every year, who knows the number that the 75-year-old playwright will eventually reach.

Lockpick Pornography is an outrageous transgressive production at the La Mama Courthouse, Carlton, as part of the Midsumma Festival.  Performed by Christopher Bryant, who is a multi-talented writer and performer, along with the director Emma Palackic, both have successfully adapted a serialized novella by Canadian writer Joey Comeau.