The play is an icon of Australian theatre, and with John Wood as Jock I have been looking forward to seeing it. The last time I attended this play it was a fairly new offering.
The play has been summarised as:
a story about egotism, commitment, power, jealousy and greed. The Club covers the transition of Australian sport into Australian business. The culture and rituals of an old football club are torn to shreds as the mighty dollar takes over. As one player remarks, "all we got for joining was a guernsey and a pat on the back. I've given the club 10 years of my life and all I've got in the bank is 80 dollars"
The play not only covers a historical transition in Australian society it is a piece of history itself. Sadly I left the theatre feeling a touch disappointed. The play had a dated feel and I did not particularly like any of the characters so I did not care about what happened to them.
The highlight, of cause, is the stoned scene at the beginning of the second act. The photo shows Wood as Jock and Guy Kable as Geoff getting him stoned and telling Jock an outrageous, and untrue, family story.
The cast performed well, particularly Denis Moore and Simon Wilton. Moore played the Club president moving from a hand wringing nervous fidget to raging and frenzied. Wilton beautifully played the club administrator, Gerry, a smiling assassin, manoeuvring behind the scenes and lying to everyone to get what he wants.
Irrespective of my slight unease about the play, it was a much more enjoyable experience that our first outing at Wyndham - The Queen of Bingo .
1 comment:
Thanks for writing this.
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