A scene from The Removalists
David Williamson’s The Removalists is a bleak but darkly funny play. The Sydney Theatre Company production manages to extract a lot of black humour from amongst the violence, hypocrisy and verbal abuse.
The Removalists follows Constable Neville Ross (Dale March) on his first day in the police force under the tutelage of an old timer, Sergeant Simmonds (Danny Adcock). The officers agree to help a beaten wife (Eve Morey) move out of her house (hoping for favours from her sister) but things turn ugly when her husband (Ashley Lyons) comes home.
This incredibly violent play was written in 1971 and retains a lot of the language and attitudes of the time. The cops, especially Sergeant Simmonds, are real bastards; violent, rude and sexist. Director Wayne Blair has made nods to modernity but the play can’t really escape its roots. One success is the use of modern police uniforms, with jackboots and cargo pants conveying a sense ofarrogance and menace.
The fight scenes, and there are many, are fabulously choreographed. Sometimes it’s difficult to believe that you’re not watching the actors actually belting each other.
It’s even harder to believe that you’re laughing. But the vindictive Sergeant Simmonds explaining how to beat a man and the apathetic removalist (Alan Flower) asking the dumped and brutalised husband what he should take next both brought the house down.
If black humour and violence are your thing then you’ll love The Removalists. Just don’t sit in the front row or you’ll come home covered in fake blood and actor spit.
