Justin Stewart Cotta, Haiha Le and Guy Edmonds in Dream Home at the Ensemble Theatre; image via Facebook
For his latest play, David Williamson presents Ensemble audiences with the clichéd contemporary Australian dream: enter a young cross-cultural couple – a heavily pregnant Dana (Haiha Le) and magnetic composer Paul (Guy Edmonds) – who have just moved into their first apartment, which they admit ‘the bank owns more than them’.
Fashionable creative freelancing types living in a Bondi block of four apartments, their Gen Y righteous sense of self quickly unravels into sugar-coated power struggles with their new neighbours as the play unfolds.
Dana and Paul’s new neighbours barrel into their apartment in rapid succession: first the culturally stereotyped Lebanese security entrepreneur – or more aptly thug – Sam (Justin Stewart Cotta) and his ex-“model”, ex-girlfriend of Paul, Colette (Libby Munro); kleptomaniac bingo-loving Wilma from across the hall; and dysfunctional upstairs couple, the failed “waste” engineer Henry (Alan Fowler) and Qantas hostess-come-nymphomaniac wife, Cynthia (Olivia Pigeot). All that was missing to check every box was an alcoholic.
Williamson has assembled and delivered this lazy string of characters with comic zeal. But while his script kept audiences chuckling in their seats, largely the play did not take them anywhere. But then, this is a social comedy not a drama; Williamson himself describes Dream Home as ‘unashamedly a comedy’.
He continued in a press statement: ‘Comedy must however be grounded in the real problems and irritations of living and this one certainly is.’
This is where the play fell down. Its sense of reality – despite a few “now” political barbs – seemed locked in the past; a comic format that did little to extend audiences beyond their surface chuckle. The neatness of this play – its conclusion leaning more on the “dream” side of resolution than reality – is rather irksome. And you walk away feeling you didn’t quite get your fill – dramatically it’s a bit like a McDonalds’ meal; one is still hungry but sold the idea of a great meal.
The staging was kept to a minimal; the use of lighting to punctuate, parcel up and structure the play was quite effective. Did it heighten mood or merely offer pause? Simply, the play lacked the kind of subtle tensions that give rise to and balance comedy. And highlighted against last year’s hugely successful Cruise Control, this script felt like it could have had a little more refining before hitting the stage.
Holding the play together, however, was a stunning performance by Cotta. As the self-described “lion of Lebanon”, his range and presence on stage drove the play. And yet it was not without problems. Williamson’s character could be viewed as hedging too close to cultural boundaries, again dating Williamson and playing to Sydney’s north shore audience.
Cotta’s rapport with Edmonds was stronger than stage-wife Le’s, who seemed to be caught on the surface of her character Dana. The failing was twofold: one was left feeling that Williamson had not fully explored Dana as a character, who feels underwritten in the dynamic of the play, and that Le struggled to bring her to life, in contrast to her dynamic portrayal of Wendi Deng in Williamson’s recent Rupert.
Similarly, Munro as Colette was almost a non-character; her fake tan more illuminating than her delivery.
This play could be redeemed. The kind of manly jousting between the characters of Paul and Sam – while veiled in humour – does offer an interesting foundation. Australia’s real estate obsession equally offers a greater range of dramatic possibility and witty dialogue than Williamson explores in this play. It feels underwritten, unready for the stage; why it has been rushed into production – on the heels of Rupert and Cruise Control – we may never know.
Regardless, it is a new work by David Williamson; it will sell well and Ensemble audiences are loyal.
Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 5
Dream Home
Written and directed by David Williamson
With Justin Stewart Cotta, Guy Edmonds, Alan Flower, Katrina Foster, Haiha Le, Libby Munro and Olivia Pigeot
Ensemble Theatre, Sydney
5 February – 28 March
ensemble.com.au
