Australian Realness

Zoey Dawson’s latest, Australian Realness, gets right to the heart of Australian middle-class drama and rips it to shreds.

Before the performance even begins, Australian Realness welcomes you into such a typical Australian home that as you wait for the play to begin, you can’t help playing 'Spot The Thing We Used To Have At Our House'. The level of detail in Romanie Harper’s set design makes it wonderfully nostalgic and instantly evocative of the realist family dramas Australia loves. Soon the characters come out and they are all there; the kooky dad who used to be cool in the '70s, he swears; the slightly uptight mum who just wants to have a nice celebration; the feminist daughter who doesn’t hear the privilege seeping from everything she says; the son who is trying so damn hard to make it in business. All the clichés we know and love/hate are here, just in time for Christmas. However, soon the bogans – who have been living in the shed – come to join in the holiday fun and the farce of Australian middle-class culture begins to unravel at such a radical speed you wonder how shoddy it must have been to begin with.

Dawson’s text is hilariously intelligent. Its searing critique of class divide is nuanced and fair to the characters. She powerfully exposes the grey areas of modern life and the hypocrisies of the Australian bourgeois. Living in Melbourne and seeing this show is damn good comedy, with every reference to inner-north institutions spot on. However, Dawson doesn’t leave us in regular family drama territory, the play nosedives into complete absurdity, with a revolution, actors playing multiple characters, and an art installation so pretentious it must really be happening somewhere. We are forced to examine the way we live and the entertainment we consume, while being endlessly enthralled by the text and the acting.

The five main cast members, Linda Cropper as the mothers, Greg Stone as the fathers, André de Vanny as the sons, Emily Goddard as the sole daughter, and Chanella Macri as the partner, are all as tremendous as each other. Having each actor play a range of characters with varying levels of absurdity exhibits their talent and utter dedication to the show.

Australian Realness is strong enough theatre to be able to call out its middle-class audience, while still making them laugh. It inspires you to take more care with your life and the opinions you hold and hypnotises you as it breaks apart the notion of entertainment and drama itself. It’s all a farce; life is a farce, theatre is a farce – yet, it’s the realest thing there is.