Sydney Theatre Company and Canberra Theatre Centre presented by State Theatre Company South Australia in Association with the University of Adelaide. Dunstan Playhouse. 20 Aug 2024

 

Julia Gillard is less remembered as the country’s first female Prime Minister than as the woman who told the patriarchy exactly where to go.

Her great misogyny speech is so celebrated that it has become a performance piece in itself.

Hence, at the almost one-hander play written by that brilliant Melbourne playwright, Joanna Murray-Smith, it is unsurprising that the audience is braced with expectation.

It is not disappointed, of course.

 

There is no pretence that a play simply called Julia is a critical analysis of the Gillard years. It is, in fact, a paeon. It is beautifully written and theatrically crafted. It is a 100-minute love song underscored by the hypothesis of the subject’s thought processes.

All of the above is very artfully enabled by the dramatic finesse of Justine Clarke. Gillard expresses her inner life through the refined voice of the actress.  Only now and then at pivotal moments does that unmistakable and oft-parodied ’Strine tone of the politician herself jolt through the dialogue and it does so with startlingly astute mimicry. It is an extremely clever auditory balancing act for, indeed, 100 minutes of strident vocal verite might be tough going and would definitely undermine some of the pensive lyricism of the script.

 

There’s an irony that the play is called Julia insofar as the Julia in the play makes a vehement point of the fact that she felt the political and public world’s reference to her by her Christian name was disrespectful. Other Prime Ministers were mentioned more formally in the third person by surnames. 

In which contemplation one realised that during her PM era, one had not seen things from her perspective at all. Such familiarity one had taken for yon easy-going Aussie affection.

 

But the play looks at Gillard’s inner life. 

 

There is no doubt that Parliament was and, indeed, is, a place of unremittingly savage and boorish behaviour. Certain politicians were not and are not figures of culture and refinement and even those who have been, such as Keating, used their erudition only for a more colourful abusive eloquence. 

 

Our first woman PM had a thorny path and, while her lack of marital status and as a woman “barren” of children were quietly understood by many women, they definitely did not align to the haúsefrau expectations of the narrow old conservatives. Nothing much has changed. One just has to watch the American right wing’s constant carping against childless Kamala Harris. Which, of course, has been drowned by a wonderful tsunami of cats.

 

Murray-Smith avoids mentioning Gillard’s atheism but creates a very earnest thinkscape of our historic 27th Prime Minister and, under Sarah Goodes’ sensitive direction, Clarke delivers a serious, reflective woman devoid of physical vanity but with a core of polished steel. She is softened by the relationship with her Welsh father and origins among the diligence of a mining community.

 

There are a few treasured moments of levity and the audience laughs readily. There also are moments of personal and professional regret, very carefully bracketed for balance. While Gillard’s administration delivered a motherlode of legislation, 570 Bills passed, there were some extremely lamentable failures; single parent pensions as refugees among them.

 

But there are no shortcomings for Justine Clarke. For the actress, it is a tour de force. She commands the stage with a spirit of soft determination. Even when Julia is telling the world where to get off, she gives it a lightness. She’s casually costumed, accompanied on stage by Jessica Bentley as the young woman and dresser. Hers is a very benign presence, with shadowy entrances and exits at symbolic moments. This well-lit presence also serves to lift the production from the visual limits of a one-hander. Renee Mulder’s set alleviates this impression, too. It is an excellent set, mirrored on two sides to give depth and interest and also to align with AV projections. For Julia, there is a carpeted quadrangle centre stage but only a chair and a pot plant in the way of sets and props. Minimalist it is indeed. But, the production values - light, sound, and design - are nigh flawless.

 

Monologues have become a major “thing” in these years of slender theatrical budgets and hungry audiences have been forgiving. 

In this case, however, there are two big names, Murray-Smith and Gillard. In Australia 2024, they're an irresistible drawcard. 

 

The theatre is packed out.

The audience is well rewarded, and it stands in acclaim. It recognises that this monologue, the studied hypothetical contemplations of the first female Australian Prime Minister, is as good as it gets.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 20 to 31 Aug

Where: Dunstan Playhouse

Bookings: statetheatrecompany.com.au