On the surface, the characters in David Williamson’s 1991 play MONEY AND FRIENDS are intelligent, sophisticated, urbane folk!
Gathered together for their regular rendezvous at the beachside settlement of Crystal Inlet, they are fine, upstanding examples of responsible middle class people; academics, television reporter, lawyers…
And yet, and this is the rub and hub of MONEY AND FRIENDS- they make the oddest choices…It’s the old chestnut, what exactly are they thinking?!
History Professor Margaret is determined to follow her pursuit of picking up young men from the city’s arts gallery.
Star television reporter Conrad, one of whose main motivations is to achieve immortality by having as many children as his can, decides that paying $20 maintenance per week for his son Justin is more than enough.
Vicky wants to leave her successful lawyer husband, Alex, to go off on her own merry tangent and head off to Los Angeles, leaving her eight year old son behind.
This is a very fine Williamson play. It’s Jacques Tati like, the great French satirist, in its comic take on human quirkiness and frailty.
Actress Melanie Robinson clearly loves it. This is the second time in 2 years I have seen her play in it. In 2012, she was in the Epicentre production, directed by Lenore Robertson, at Chatswood’s Zenith theatre, giving an assured performance as the flighty Vicky. This time around, she delivers another relaxed, confident performance as the agreeable, good natured Penny.
Marty O’Neill is great as her neurotic, voice of gloom surgeon husband, Stephen. The scene where he obsessively tries to pick out the dry rot that is eating away at the balcony boards is a classic.
Rob White gave an appealing performance as pure mathematics Professor Peter, the weekend host. When Peter’s financial crisis comes to the attention of the group, one has never seen so many nervous nellies in one place!
Shane Bates is not believable in the anchor role of Margaret and this hurts the production.
Peter Lavelle’s production of David Williamson’s MONEY AND FRIENDS opened at the Genesian Theatre Company on Saturday 21st July and plays until Saturday 25th August, 2012.
© David Kary
26th July, 2012
Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- MONEY AND FRIENDS, David Williamson, Peter Lavelle, Shane Bates, Marty O’Neill, Melanie Robertson, Rob White, Grant Fraser, Sydney Arts Guide, David Kary