The Removalist

Before restraining orders and litigation against the police was high on courts’ watch list, we are talking the setting of The Removalist by David Williamson written back in Australia 1971. The Perth Theatre Company has delivered a robust and non clichéd production from Williamson’s canon which doesn’t stereotype the corrupt cop (Greg McNeill), beating husband (Philip Miolin), or victim wife (Fiona Pepper).

Melissa Cantwell as director has created an authentic time period for this truly biting play - it is full of the Aussie vernacular which makes a paradoxical evening in the theatre with humour coming from the darkest places – abuse and corruption. The cast is uniformly fine in their roles bring the realism to life and the pitching of the production reaches the climax brilliantly crescendos without melodrama or inauthenticity. Sam Devenport as the young constable on the first day at the police station encounters this domestic violence case and is misguided by his sergeant played by McNeill who develops in the role well. The women of the play are wife subtly handled by Pepper and also Kim Walsh as her cheating sister. Jon English as the removalist who has a ‘$10,000 worth’ of van ticking over outside is suitably meek yet nosy which lends for some comic moments.

The true genius of the set design by Leon Krasenstein is in its multiplicity as the almost television like black box boundaries that frame the wooden apartment with curved angles and no distinct contrasting doors. It is captivating, dense, and at times claustrophobic. The symbolic staging by Cantwell of the women as the men inhabit the centre where the sloping walls hold no footing and Miolin is bound with handcuffs to indivisible door is fantastic and works really well for the period and content of one of Australia’s finest playwrights.

Considering it is the last production by Perth Theatre Company in the Playhouse Theatre, and a great farewell to the much loved theatre by so many in the Perth theatre going public it would be a surefire successful outing to the theatre.

The Removalist

Dates: 27/08/2010–11/09/2010
Venues: Playhouse Theatre
3 Pier Street, Perth
Perth Theatre Company Gala Performance
Friday 27 August, 8pm
Saturday 28 August, 8pm
Monday 30 August, 8pm
Tuesday 31 August, 8pm
Wednesday 1 September, 8pm
Thursday 2 September, 8pm
Friday 3 September, 8pm
Saturday 4 September, 2.15pm* & 8pm
Monday 6 September, 8pm
Tuesday 7 September, 8pm
Wednesday 8 September, 8pm
Thursday 9 September, 8pm
Friday 10 September, 8pm
Saturday 11 September, 2.15pm & 8pm