In ‘The Grenade’, political lobbyist Busby McTavish (Gary McDonald) is having a regular day at home with his family, his second wife Sally McTavish (Belinda Bromilow), their new baby, and Lola (Eloise Mignon), his precocious teenage daughter from his first marriage, when he makes a gruesome find; he discovers a grenade in his living room. Busby does well dealing with the grenade but not with the consequences. The questions keep coming up; who is responsible for the terrorist act? Busby knows he has enemies but he can’t believe that anyone would stoop to this level! He moves quickly to try and make his family safe from any further attacks.

‘The Grenade’ is the new play by Australian playwright, Tony McNamara. Over some years now McNamara has continued to entertain audiences with satirical, very contemporary comedies such as ‘The John Wayne Principle’, ‘The Café Latte Kid’ and ‘The Give and Take’, and ‘The Grenade’ shows that he has lost none of his touch. His plays are distinctive in that they create comic, quirky, surreal worlds that engage audiences. There’s very little that’s clear cut in a Tony McNamara world, everything is conjecture.

Here’s a peek into the world that is ‘The Grenade’. The characters are oddball. A few examples… Busby’s wife, Sally, used to be a convent nun and is now writing erotic fiction… Lola’s new boyfriend, with the peculiar name Wheat, comes to the family home for the first, covering his face with a balaclava… Busby and Sally’s wife’s baby is heard speaking fluent Esperanto through the living room baby monitor speakers.

McNamara generates plenty of humour from the fall-out to the McTavish family of the ‘grenade attack’. The audience laughs as Busby goes on full with the latest technology to protect his home. Busby’s insecurity and paranoia reach new heights when he uses video surveillance to spy on his Sally when her friendship with co erotic fiction writer Randy Savage (Bert Labonte) goes too chummy.

Peter Evans directs well, and an impressive cast responds wholeheartedly to the playwright’s satire. My stand-outs were Gary McDonald as the angst ridden Busby, Belinda Bromilow as his sweet natured wife Sally, Eloise Mignon as the feisty Lola and Gig Clarke as her eccentric boyfriend, Wheat.

The action took place on Richard Roberts’s smart revolve, making it possible for the action to quickly move between locations.

A Sydney Theatre Company presentation of a Melbourne Theatre Company production, Tony McNamara’s play ‘The Grenade’, opened at the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday 9th November and plays until Sunday 12th December, 2010.