McGuffin Park
Writer: Sam O’Sullivan
Director: Mark Kilmurry
Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli
October 24 – November 23, 2024
Sam O’Sullivan’s McGuffin Park, a new play about an idealist who enters the mayoral race in the little town of McGuffin, is a gem of the political theatre genre. O’Sullivan’s absurdly funny take on the struggle for power on a micro-level is at the same time a well-timed passionate appeal for the protection of democratic government.
The play opens with the current mayor “quietly confident” of his re-appointment after the midterm council election, and his sudden resignation comes as a shock. A conversation between the mayor (Thomas Campbell) and sensation-hunting local journalist Dayle (Lizzie Schebesta) prior to his resignation points to a hidden motive that later becomes leverage when the struggle for succession between the ambitious Jack (Shan-Ree Tan), local deputy-principal and member of The Party, and a tremulous Fiona (Eloise Snape), the local owner of the McGuffin Bakery and Community Independent, becomes dead-locked.
There are, of course, other contenders for the position, for instance, pub-owner Eric (Jamie Oxenbould) who is aiming at casino-like renovations and Judy (also Schebesta) who opposes his plans, both The Party members. Directions from above – due process or drawing names out of a hat – make Jack the candidate and he, despite his long-term friendship with Fiona and the fact that he convinced her to nominate, agrees. He’s “chuffed”, he wants to escape teaching by moving up The Party ladder. But why does the likable and self-sacrificing Fiona, a beautifully modulated performance by Snapes, want to be mayor – “well, I was Head Girl at primary school” – and will the contest for power change her?
Fiona’s moral compass is challenged by the contribution of several deftly observed characters. Long-time councillor “Bridge-et” (Campbell with scarf) gives practical advice straight from Machiavelli. The pushy Dayle plays the role of go-between when quiet Judy from The Party gives her the leverage she needs based upon “information” provided by new councillor, the paranoic Banjo (also Campbell with check baseball cap) who runs, he says, a “Survivalist shop. Camping’s for tourists.”
Laughter is the best medicine, and an astute examination of the problems of sustaining democratic government comes with an exuberant dose of comedy. While the various tensions among the members of the McGuffin council – Seamus (also Oxenbould), coach of the McGuffin Hogs, and screechy Susan (Schebesta), organiser of the McGuffin Festival, battle over the McGuffin Park oval – provide hilarious dialogue, as does Eric’s habit of larding his conversation with odd bits of information garnered, no doubt, for his pub quizzes.
Eric (or Oxenbould) as Bertolt Brecht is ludicrously comical but the reference recalls The Caucasian Chalk Circle in which a child, Michael, is given to a peasant girl, who cared for his welfare, rather than his biological mother, who cared only for profit. The care of a country, or a town called McGuffin, should go to those who put the welfare of the whole before personal or group self-interest. Is this even possible? How would Fiona answer this question?
A clever play, balancing comedy and insight with skill, a cast of excellent players performing with zest, well-thought-through staging, costuming and lighting, and directed with panache by Mark Kilmurry, McGuffin Park is not to be missed.
