David Williamson (2) (1942–)
Autor de The Removalists
Para otros autores llamados David Williamson, ver la página de desambiguación.
Sobre El Autor
The author of 15 plays, as well as numerous screen and television scripts, David Williamson is certainly Australia's most prolific playwright. He is also the country's most popular dramatist and the one best known abroad. Finally, most critics and general theatergoers would agree that he is the mostrar más best playwright Australia has produced so far. Although his screenplays move into areas outside Australia, the plays remain fixed in his native land. Always well received in Australia, they have also been successful in Europe and the United States. Williamson's greatest achievement, then, lies in the way he makes universal that experience peculiar to Australians. Born in a small town near Melbourne, Williamson did not appear destined for a theatrical career. While majoring in engineering in college, he began writing for campus productions, and soon turned to a career as a playwright. Not particularly experimental, each play is marked by firm structure, exact sense of place, vivid language, satire, and comedy. These elements cohere to reveal believable characters facing often ordinary conflicts. Their responses are sometimes mundane and muddled, and rarely does a resolution take place. Among his works of the 1970s, The Removalists (1971) uses techniques of theater of cruelty. The plot revolves around police violence against individuals as a metaphor for gratuitous violence in society. Don's Party (1971) reveals the public and personal frustrations of a group of professional men and women at an election day party. In The Coming of Stork, a group of educated, urban young men and women seek their places in the social structure. The adverse role the Vietnam War played in Australian society is depicted in Jugglers Three, while What If You Died Tomorrow dramatizes the effect of fame on marriage and family relationships. Later plays include Travelling North (1980), The Perfectionist (1982), Sons of Cain (1985), Emerald City (1987), and Top Silk (1990). Williamson has addressed a number of themes, many relevant to Australian society and to cultures in other parts of the world. Yet his plays are never didactic; they entertain first, and then challenge the viewer. Insisting that his work is naturalistic, Williamson does indeed create a very real picture of life. Always, though, the reality is tempered by comedy and by a sympathetic attitude toward the characters inhabiting the imaginary world of the stage---a world in which viewers at times see themselves and their own foibles exposed. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Obras de David Williamson
The Jack Manning Trilogy: A Conversation / Face to Face / Charitable Intent (Current Theatre) (2002) 11 copias
Phar Lap 1 copia
Obras relacionadas
Facing Writers : Australia's Leading Writers Talk with Dagmar Strauss (1990) — Contribuidor — 5 copias
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Nombre legal
- Williamson, David Keith
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1942-02-24
- Género
- male
- Nacionalidad
- Australia
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Lugares de residencia
- Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia
- Educación
- University of Melbourne
Monash University - Ocupaciones
- design engineer
teacher
playwright
screenwriter - Organizaciones
- Swinburne University of Technology
- Premios y honores
- Australian Living Treasure
Order of Australia (1983)
Miembros
Reseñas
Love it or hate it, Brilliant Lies is a thought provoking look at political correctness, men, women and the balance of power in the workplace, the home and society at large. Published in 1993, it was groundbreaking at the time, controversial in both topic and the opinions suggested.
I loved this play. The hypocrisy. The truth. The lies. It was freaking hysterical.
I loved this when I first read it for my Year 9 Literature class. And rereading it, I still loved it a good seventeen years later. (Which jeez talk about feeling old). But as much as I've aged, it's sad that a play written in 1993 is still as relevant today as it ever was.
Williams doesn't hold back in his critique - identifying and confronting issues of gender norms and societal perceptions and calling out the double standards that exist - that still exist. The reversal of Roe vs. Wade is an obvious example of the way in which women are marginalised - rights long fought for just being dismissed. No one would dream of legislating what a man can do with his body.
That said, when it comes to intimacy, sex and relationships between men and women, the lines are blurry. Truth, lies - it's all about perceptions - our own biases, societal ones, he said, she said, society said - there's no real clear cut answer to most of the questions being asked. Ask five different people what happened at a party and you'll get five different answers - even if the basic gist is the same. When is a man being sleazy? Is it when he flirts? When he's not 100% professional? When you're not into it? When you like him? Or don't like him? When it's more obscene than flattering? When he's awkward and trying to be friendly but has no idea how to interact with a woman? When you feel threatened? And who's answering? A jealous boyfriend/friend? A family member? Someone timid? Someone outgoing? Someone who enjoys sex? Someone who doesn't? All of these things colour our perceptions. So how do we decide what's the line? Where's the line?
Unfortunately there is no real solution to the problem. I'd love for it to be a simple answer but it just isn't. Humans are not perfect - and the flaws that come out when faced with injustice are not always pretty.
In Brilliant Lies, this takes the form of Susy who is feminine, sexual and flirty. Her dress and behaviour is liked, accepted - right up until it isn't convenient and then these things become the reasons for judgement, for disparagement.
Susy is brash, belligerent, beautiful and willing to embrace everything she has to get ahead. And sometimes that works and other times it doesn't. Is she lying about the sexual harassment? Yes. Does that mean it didn't happen? No. If she didn't lie would they have believed her? Probably not. So how do you get justice? How many women have left because of Gary? More than a few. Does Susy lying make Gary less guilty? No. There's so many layers to this text. So many layers of injustice.
I think younger female readers will be appalled and outraged at the blatant injustice but for those of us that have lived the time before #MeToo and the following social revolution, Brilliant Lies is a realistic representation of the time.
I love this play. I love what it says, what it represents, the thoughts it provokes and the issues it confronts. It's outrageous and funny and fearless, a must read. 4 stars.… (más)
I loved this play. The hypocrisy. The truth. The lies. It was freaking hysterical.
I loved this when I first read it for my Year 9 Literature class. And rereading it, I still loved it a good seventeen years later. (Which jeez talk about feeling old). But as much as I've aged, it's sad that a play written in 1993 is still as relevant today as it ever was.
Williams doesn't hold back in his critique - identifying and confronting issues of gender norms and societal perceptions and calling out the double standards that exist - that still exist. The reversal of Roe vs. Wade is an obvious example of the way in which women are marginalised - rights long fought for just being dismissed. No one would dream of legislating what a man can do with his body.
That said, when it comes to intimacy, sex and relationships between men and women, the lines are blurry. Truth, lies - it's all about perceptions - our own biases, societal ones, he said, she said, society said - there's no real clear cut answer to most of the questions being asked. Ask five different people what happened at a party and you'll get five different answers - even if the basic gist is the same. When is a man being sleazy? Is it when he flirts? When he's not 100% professional? When you're not into it? When you like him? Or don't like him? When it's more obscene than flattering? When he's awkward and trying to be friendly but has no idea how to interact with a woman? When you feel threatened? And who's answering? A jealous boyfriend/friend? A family member? Someone timid? Someone outgoing? Someone who enjoys sex? Someone who doesn't? All of these things colour our perceptions. So how do we decide what's the line? Where's the line?
Unfortunately there is no real solution to the problem. I'd love for it to be a simple answer but it just isn't. Humans are not perfect - and the flaws that come out when faced with injustice are not always pretty.
In Brilliant Lies, this takes the form of Susy who is feminine, sexual and flirty. Her dress and behaviour is liked, accepted - right up until it isn't convenient and then these things become the reasons for judgement, for disparagement.
VINCE: You want to know the truth about that girl. She came in with [Searching for words] - everything showing -
GARY: Boobs popping right out of her dress.
VINCE: Dress right up to here. [Demonstrating a point right up his thigh.] Blatant.
GARY: Trying to get herself a job.
MARION: She did get the job.
[The men look at each other, embarrassed.]
VINCE: I wouldn't have given it to her.
MARION: Gary convinced you?
GARY: I thought she had potential.
[MARION looks at GARY.]
MARION: Potential.
GARY: Work potential.
MARION: Right.
Williamson, David. (1993) Brilliant Lies (p. 6). Currency Press.
Susy is brash, belligerent, beautiful and willing to embrace everything she has to get ahead. And sometimes that works and other times it doesn't. Is she lying about the sexual harassment? Yes. Does that mean it didn't happen? No. If she didn't lie would they have believed her? Probably not. So how do you get justice? How many women have left because of Gary? More than a few. Does Susy lying make Gary less guilty? No. There's so many layers to this text. So many layers of injustice.
I think younger female readers will be appalled and outraged at the blatant injustice but for those of us that have lived the time before #MeToo and the following social revolution, Brilliant Lies is a realistic representation of the time.
I love this play. I love what it says, what it represents, the thoughts it provokes and the issues it confronts. It's outrageous and funny and fearless, a must read. 4 stars.… (más)
When I was a high school student (many yonks ago), David Williamson was the anointed great Australian playwright and we read many of his plays in English class. I don't know if he is still considered the great Australian playwright but The Removalists shows Williamson at his most nihilistic.
Two policeman, including a rookie, arrive at a residence where a woman has complained that her partner assaulted her. Life follows. For the time, I'm sure The Removalists was groundbreaking in its frankness around domestic violence and the like but even by my school years it had an outdated feel to it.… (más)
Two policeman, including a rookie, arrive at a residence where a woman has complained that her partner assaulted her. Life follows. For the time, I'm sure The Removalists was groundbreaking in its frankness around domestic violence and the like but even by my school years it had an outdated feel to it.… (más)
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Estadísticas
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- También por
- 2
- Miembros
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- Popularidad
- #69,365
- Valoración
- 3.8
- Reseñas
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- ISBNs
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- Idiomas
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- Favorito
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