The Rumour
Written and directed by Jane Malone
With Patrick Drew, Cherie Davis, Fiona Butler, Randall Mettam, Ross Young
Playing at the Crypt Theatre, Cat & Fiddle Hotel, Balmain
Until August 20
REVIEW BY LACHLAN MALLOCH
How the times have changed since the 1980s if a savvy new play set in the historical heartland of the Australian labour movement presents a pin-striped Liberal Party consultant as smart and in control, while his Labor counterpart is a mere buffoon!
The Crypt Theatre again delivers topical and entertaining drama with The Rumour, Jane Malone's first production as writer-in-residence. Malone brings us up-close-and-personal with the players in a Machiavellian Liberal-Labor political game, via the intimate setting of a 30-something dinner party in Balmain.
The play's action unfolds in real time, exploiting a time-honoured dramatic device to create tension — a sense of time running out. From the opening lines it's fast-paced and funny, as well as posing questions about the intersection of our personal lives with Australian parliamentary politics.
The plot revolves around the ineffective and conservative leader of the federal Labor opposition, Dick Jones, the victim of a potentially scandalous rumour.
Pete is a disaffected journalist who's been so obsessively involved with the Labor left that he's lost his libido. Pete's desperate to prove the rumour true by 10pm so he can scoop tomorrow's front page and help his mate John Fahd depose Dick Jones to become Labor's new messiah.
The winds of cynical parliamentary politics, media muck-racking and dreams of social change swirl through what was at first domestic peace. Pete's desperation grows as the deadline approaches and the guests' lives become increasingly intertwined.
The mess these characters get themselves into and its deliciously sour resolution reveal an interesting sub-text of the dirtiness and cynicism of Laborism of all shades.
Nick, the pin-striped Liberal consultant, is a kind of Shakespearean character — a blend of conscience and nemesis for Pete. He personifies the Liberals' smug and unchallenged hold on political power for the past decade.
The Rumour ultimately locates the ethics of ordinary Australians — including the ones whose left-wing ideals are fading — far above those of the Machiavellian political players whose personal paths we occasionally cross.