Play 1, 2012

David Williamson's

Money and Friends

directed by Leo Wockner

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Money and Friends - nice to have both, but will one get you the other?

Sitting out on The Great Australian Deck enjoying a cold Chardy or robust Aussie red, and cooking up a steak on the Beefeater. Life couldn’t be better. Views out over beautiful Crystal Inlet, and greenies coming down to eat off your hand (parrots, that is, not tree-huggers). Nothing to worry about - apart from the occasional bit of dry rot in the planks in your deck – because you have good reliable friends to come to your assistance if times get tough.

This idyllic scene of birds, beer and barbies in a picturesque “sea-change” bay is disrupted for one of the clan by a financially and emotionally damaging law suit. Suddenly he needs a considerable sum of money to avoid bankruptcy. The ducking and weaving of his “good friends” make great comedy and biting satire in this play of modern bad manners

The Playwright

David Williamson rose to prominence in the early 1970s, with works such as Don's Party (later turned into a 1976 film), a comic drama set during an Australian federal election and The Removalists (1971).

Graduating from Monash University in 1965, he worked briefly for General Motors Holden and then as a lecturer for Swinburne University, before he turned to writing plays in 1967. Williamson's plays focus on themes of politics, loyalty and family in contemporary urban Australia, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney.

His major works include The Club, The Department, Travelling North, The Perfectionist, Emerald City, Money and Friends and Brilliant Lies.

He also collaborated on the screenplays for Gallipoli (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

The Director

Leo Wockner has been a member of the Villanova Players for many years and a popular Brisbane theatre identity. He is well known as an actor, director and artists’ advocate whose recent Brisbane stage appearances include Oedipus the King and The Crucible for the Queensland Theatre Company.
More recently, Leo has directed for VPs in 2008, producing the classic Irish comedy The Playboy of the Western World, and An Inspector Calls in 2010.

The Cast

The Crew

Stage Managers	Dan Knudson