The Removalists

A detailed Summary of The Removalists

The Removalists, written by David Williamson, is a very interesting play set in the seventies. The basic plot is two sisters walk into the police station to complain about one sister being physically abused by her husband. The to police officers then help her move out but not before beating her husband quite severely. In the end, one of the police officers loses control and beats the husband to death, although unintentionally.

Now, the question posed by this essay is whether, given the chance, I would create three dimensional characters on stage or stereotypically Australian characters. Having given it some thought, I believe that the most effective way to portray these characters is hide a deep character with a thin layer of superficial, Australian stereotype on the top. To put it simply, I would start the play by making the audience believe that there is not much substance to the characters, but as the play proceeds, a new layer is slowly revealed to expose a greater personality. The following body of text will give examples as to why I believe this.

The first example I shall give is Simmonds. Simmonds is one of the police officers who helps move Fiona (the sister who was beaten), out of her apartment. Simmonds is the mos

t senior of the two policeman in this play. He is a sergeant and is married with two children. On the surface, he looks like your typical bullying police officer. I'm not saying he isn't, but there is more to this character then meets the eye. He may preach that adultery is wrong but only when he wants to get that moral advantage over those around him. This particular trait means he has set quite large double standards. Double standards because originally he had ulterior motives for helping the two women but when he realised that Kate (the sister to Fiona) wasn't interested in sleeping with him he goes off at her about being an adulterer. This is very hypocritical. This makes him sound stereotypical, and on the most part he is, but there is one part in the play when you genuinely feel something for this character. This moment is when Kate asks if he has children and he replies that he does and that he almost lost his wife and child in the first delivery. At this point, the audience needs believe that Simmonds actually is a human being and not some two dimensional stereotype.

The second character I will touch on is Fiona. Fiona, as I mentioned before, is the character who is beaten by her husband, Kenny. At first she seems quite quiet and lets others make deci

Some common words found in the essay are:
Fiona Fiona, David Williamson, Simmonds Simmonds, police officers, , david williamson, audience sense, stereotype character, fiona fiona, double standards, i'm saying, husband kenny, audience believe,

Approximate Word count = 854
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts

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