AT ANY COST?
AT ANY COST? Ensemble Theatre 7 July-27 August; Joan Sutherland PAC 6-10 September 2011.
David Williamson & Mohamed Khadra is a joint byline that’s a bit of an eyebrow-raiser: Australia’s most popular playwright and a University of Sydney medical professor. Nevertheless, between them they’ve pulled off one of the most unexpectedly profound and comically entertaining 110 minutes of theatre in recent memory.
Khadra is the author of three bestselling books, Making The Cut, the autobiographical memoir of his life as a surgeon and medico (that Peter Goldsworthy, writing in The Australian found unputdownable); The Patient, a second non-fiction book whose subtitle explains a lot: “one man’s journey through the Australian healthcare system” – both his own and that of a patient. And Terminal Decline, in which he explores the failings of the health and social systems in caring for those on the downward slope. Williamson, of course, needs no introduction although his role as a “retired” playwright must be called into question.
At Any Cost? follows a teaching surgeon (Daniel Mitchell) through the rollercoaster ride that makes up his working day. He acerbically lectures a mob of students (the audience, some of whom are pulled up sharp for their bacteria-laden personal habits, to the nervous amusement of the rest) and then has to deal with the family of an elderly patient who is dying, or should be allowed to. This is where the title comes in: should a life be prolonged just because advances in science and technology make it possible?
Des (Martin Vaughan) is heartbroken because his beloved wife of 60-some years is not only terribly ill but also unlikely to recover except as a helpless semi-vegetable. Meanwhile, she is in pain and he is in desperate denial. His children join him in the hospital’s ICU waiting room, Katie (Kate Raison) is the eldest and a bossy, rich bitch with a tongue like a razor; Megan (Tracey Mann) is the homeknitted lawyer with a social conscience and a heavy mortgage; and their younger brother Max (Tyler Coppin) is a spoilt little shit otherwise known as the composer of avant garde music that’s occasionally commissioned but rarely played.
The family is vintage Williamson (as is the fascination with life’s profound conundrums) and although you could be put off by the apparent grimness of watching people grappling with possibly the worst decision the modern advanced world has given us, it would be a pity. The storytelling is lively and generously sprinkled with laughter; it’s neither mawkish nor morbid and the characters are well served by a cast of actors that can find and follow the rhythms of the Williamson verbal music without missing a beat. Director Sandra Bates unobtrusively choreographs the action on Marissa Dale-Johnson’s simple waiting room set (the famous Ensemble hospital bed gets a rest: the patient is offstage throughout).
As the anguished husband, Martin Vaughan gives a beautifully judged performance that’s heartfelt but never slips over into sentimentality. The younger members of the cast are as up to and into their roles as you’d expect and altogether, At Any Cost? is more amusing and more compelling than many comedies or social issues dramas – and you get two for the price of one. An entertainment bargain with value-added discussion topics for later.
