A
play by David Williamson
Lecturer:
Tracey Sanders
In
future, the lectures on Australian drama will be condensed into
point form. More information will be gained by attending the lecture.
These notes will provide you with enough material for examination
purposes but please be warned, you should attend every lecture
to gain the full benefit from this advanced drama unit.
David
Williamson describes the play as thus,
Don's
Party is a play written in a naturalistic style. The language
and events of the play are meant to represent language and events
of the play are meant to represent language and events similar
to those the author of other people passively. The play is theatrically
uninteresting in that it makes not attempt to explore the theatrical
medium. I believe however that the play will not prove uninteresting
to director,actor or audience. The director is presented with
many problems, not the least of which are (those) of focus, as
most characters are on stage for the duration of the play. This
problem, it is hoped will be presented with a dramatically neglected
strata of Australian society. The graduate, ten years after graduation.
(Williamson in Kiernan 1990, pg.63)
-
In
1969, an election of disappointment when the Labor party
led by Gough Whitlam was defeated by Conservative coalition
led by John Gorton
-
Don
as an undergraduate ten years earlier had aspired to write
a great novel and his fate as a fourth form social studies
teacher living in the outer suburbs: similar to Williamson's
own life
-
First
staged in 1971 and described by Carroll (1985) as an epic
progression of fully progression of fully developed social
interactions
-
In
Don's Party we see a familiar social ceremony: the Saturday
night booze up
-
The
eve of the 1969 election, an important event for all there:
the catalyse for the evening's various activities.
-
The
night begins with social and political tensions when friends
of Don's wife reveal Liberal party sentiments. Sexual tension
accelerates with the arrival of a stunning artist and insecure
husband.
-
In
Act One, we see a major climax when Cooley becomes embroiled
with the artist in the bedroom only to be discovered by
her furious husband.
-
The
literary device of the party is an old but effective one
for Williamson
-
Carroll
(1985) argues that in Act Two, Williamson emphasises more
acutely the integrity of the social interactions as distinctive
from the 'well made' plot structure: character relationships
and actions become more heightened and absurd as attempts
at seduction become more tasteless
-
The
major well made device in the play comes in the realisation
scene near the end of the play in which Don, Mal and their
wives face the failed aspirations of their youth and the
limitations of their present lives
-
Some
insight into the characters is gained but this a little
helter skelter - the absurd situations they get themselves
into prevent any real understanding of the deeper sub-text
of each character's behaviour
-
Action
and activity, form and structure all point to the theme
which looks at how people allow their integrity and identity
to be compromised by societally conditioned role playing
often with absurd consequences. (Carroll 1985)
-
Clearly
shown in the latter part of the play when Don and Mal drunkenly
fall back on the social masks of their university days -
both have betrayed their ideals for suburbia which they
once so depised
-
This
betrayal is partly justified by family responsibilities
and the erosion of youth into middle age (Carroll 1985)
References
Carroll,
D. (1994). Contemporary Australian Drama. Currency Press: Sydney
