Image supplied courtesy Ensemble Theatre
Australian playwright David Williamson has had forty-five plays produced over the course of his illustrious career. He is best known for his acerbic wit and social satire. The latest 2017 play, Odd Man Out, launched this week at the Ensemble Theatre, follows the character Alice (Lisa Gormley), a thirty-eight year old woman whose biological clock is ticking. Against her better judgement she falls for Ryan (Justin Stewart Cotta) whom she meets on the bus who turns out to have Aspergers syndrome. This affects his ability to socialise appropriately. She sets out to socially condition him, to help him fit into societal norms. The Ensemble media blurb suggests this happens with ‘hilarious and disastrous results.’
The trouble is, the dialogue of this new play, by such an eminent writer and as part of a play which was launched as a world premiere, was not witty or clever or funny. It came across as a little bit mean to poke jabs at a woman’s desperation to have children before it’s too late.
Why must we laugh at her predicament, if she is self-aware? Likewise, the dialogue is written to make fun of Ryan’s eccentric desire to tell the blunt truth. Is it really okay to laugh at an Asperger sufferer’s predicament either? I just couldn’t laugh along.
When satire and acerbic wit work well, there is subtlety in the text. Sometimes this is created through misunderstandings or bad timing or even running gags. Often satire is achieved when the character is unaware how ridiculous they are, so a comic connection is drawn with the audience, who can see the kinds of personality flaws that the character cannot. However, we were not given that opportunity because the character of Alice is also given the role of narrator.
Action is frequently frozen so that Alice can meta-fictively ‘stage whisper’ to the audience about Ryan’s condition, its precise details and how she is going to try and fix it. Again there is no irony here. We, the audience, are not given a secret view of the characters. We are merely lectured about Aspergers and given spoiler notifications of what is going to happen next.
This was the opening night (John Bell from Bell/Shakespeare was in attendance, as was actor Georgie Parker) and the actors’ nerves were possibly strung out. But, please. Constant hand-wringing? Constant pacing? Sounding on the verge of melodramatic tears…during every single line of the play?
Williamson’s great skill, in previous plays, has been his ability to create dialogue that creates its own tension. No need for hand-wringing or pacing. The subtlety used to be there in the veiled lies, the passive aggressive comments, the sadistic truths. These clever writing skills were absent from ‘Odd Man Out.’ I don’t believe many of us want to laugh at people with a developmental syndrome. Nor do we want to laugh at the generous loved ones who do their best to keep them socially assimilated. To do so, is a faux pas.
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Odd Man Out by David Williamson
Directed by ​Mark Kilmurry
Assistant Director: Samantha Young
Designed by Anna Gardiner
Lighting Designer: Christopher Page
Sound Designer: Alistair Wallace
Cast: Gael Ballantyne, Justin Stewart Cotta, Rachel Gordon, Lisa Gormley, Matt Minto & Bill Young.
Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli (NSW)
​24 January – 19 March 2017
