Review: Gethsemane

Published in the Sun Herald

Gethsemane
Belvoir Street Theatre
Until 18 October
Tickets $34-56
Bookings (02) 9699 3444
Critic’s Rating 6/10


Whether it’s John Della Bosca, Milton Orkopulous or Matt Brown, political affairs in NSW make this British play about power, politics, party donors, sex and drug scandals all a bit polite.

This is a major problem for Gethsemane, a new play from British playwright David Hare that rails against another failing government - Britain’s New Labour.

Even though Hare stated the play was ‘pure fiction’ when it premiered in London last year, it clearly targets Prime Minister Tony Blair and vilifies his government for Iraq, Afghanistan and everything else that’s wrong with the world and British society.

The title refers to the night of the Last Supper when Jesus is tempted to not carry through with the responsibility he has been given by God. It’s a moral quandary as Hare asks: how far have our governments, elected representatives and society strayed from our own responsibilities?

Prime Minister Alec Beasley (Rhys Muldoon) is running a government sliding down the polls. But he seems to be more occupied raising funds for the party with bovver boy Otto Fallon (Hugh Keays- Byrne) and his spooky sidekick (Charlie Garber) than looking after his increasingly dysfunctional country.

Meanwhile, Beasley’s Home Secretary, Meredith Guest (Sarah Peirse), is trying to contain a potentially explosive situation involving her teenage daughter Suzette (Emily Barclay), a tabloid journalist (Dan Wyllie), drugs and a sex scandal.

Seeking the help of her advisor (Paula Arundell) and Suzette’s old teacher-turned busker (Claire Jones), Guest attempts to contain the situation, stay in politics and save her daughter.

This new production directed by Neil Armfield at first appears quite timely, but the depth to Hare’s characters (along with some far-fetched notions around the influence of Suzette’s teacher in a scene with Fallon) makes it fall short of the real-life melodrama we already have going on around us.

On a set by Brian Thomsen that looks strikingly similar to My Zinc Bed - another Hare play he designed for Armfield - the performers are all faultless. Peirse has that British neurotic quality of a minister battling to be a mother and Garber brings a Transylvanian quality that injects some life into a play that is intelligent but not as witty as it first appears.

With a tone that rarely gets above a royal family Christmas message it’s all too genteel and pales in comparison with the bearpit of the NSW parliament.