JULIA

 

Julia by Joanna Murray-Smith. 

Directed by Sarah Goodes. Assistant director Charley Sanders.   Sydney Theatre Company and Canberra Theatre Centre. The Playhouse. Until August 11 2024 Bookings; www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

It seems apt that Joanna Murray-Smith’s play Julia, commissioned by the Sydney Theatre Company should have had its its world premiere in Canberra in March 2023. I first reviewed the STC production of Julia at its world premiere in Canberra in March 2023. I returned to the Canberra opening last night to witness again Justine Clarke's extraordinary performance as Julia Gillard in Joanna Murray-Smith's play. I discovered that my review of the 2023 performance is as relevant, which is why I am reprinting it here. However, the play has grown as have the performances of Clarke and the Young Woman, Jessica Bentley. The performance, so relaxed and charismatic appears to be as much about who Gillard is as a person, about her humanity, her strengths and her frailties as it is about what she did and what she achieved in her short time as the first female Prime Minister of the country. Clarke draws out the humour and the irony of her circumstance and the performance sparkles with wit. The lessons are as profound as ever and a year on the audience is as captivated and fired up as ever. In Canberra the play has a particular resonance as I wrote in the review of the world premiere .

Review: Julia stars Justine Clarke, brilliant as Julia Gillard

Here, in the nation's political heart, Australia’s first female Prime Minister endured the slings and arrows of outrageous vilification. Here, unlike any other Prime Minister in living history, and with a hung parliament, Gillard successfully steered more than 500 bills through the Senate into law. Here on October 9^th 2012, Prime Minister Gillard delivered a rebuttal to Tony Abbott’s accusation of sexism that would reverberate throughout the world with the words “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not” – three words that defined Julia Gillard since childhood when an eight year old Julia informed her mother that “I will not have children. I will not”. It is this mantra that Murray-Smith probes with such insight and empathy.

Justine Clarke and Jessica Bentley in Julia

Julia is not a biographical collection of facts, although they are the hooks upon which she hangs a deeper understanding of Gillard’s character and motivation, her ambition and her vulnerability, her resilience and her pain. Julia is a play of considerable complexity, and Murray-Smith and director Sarah Goodes are brilliantly served by Justine Clarke in the eponymous role. Clarke is mercurial, able to enchant as a young Julia, introduce us to the free-spirited teenager at Unley High, or intrigue as we watch her scale the parapet of political power.

 In a performance that charts the course of Gillard’s rise and fall, Clarke is magnificent. For an hour and a half on stage Clarke’s portrayal commands attention. The audience laughs and cheers as she makes a mockery of Kevin Rudd’s “suicide by ego”. They applaud her condemnation of Tony Abbott’s arrogance, and are appalled by Peter Slipper’s revolting text messages. We bristle with disgust at Alan Jones’s chaff bag jibe. We feel for the loss of her father. We understand the negotiator’s compromise.  Clarke is assisted with props and costume changes by newcomer Jessica Bentley whose occasional presence as Young Woman facilitates the fluidity of Goodes’ direction as well as reflecting the hope for every young woman who will continue Gillard’s legacy. Sydney Theatre Company’s production is a triumph of artistic collaboration. Murray-Smith weaves a mystery to discover the essence of a woman compelled to negotiate a male dominated domain. Goodes’ unobtrusive direction is supportive and compassionate. Designer Renee Mulder  surrounds the stage with reflecting mirrors that alternately reveal a sea of audience’s faces, or video designer Susie Henderson’s expansive body of water as Gillard struggles with the government’s border policy, or the closing image of hope for the future in the faces of young children singing. Steve Francis’s composition and sound design offer a subtle score to a production, which under Alexander Berlage’s lighting design never intrudes but acts as a complement and conduit to Clarke’s portrayal of a woman sacrificed at the altar of misogyny.

It is inevitable that Murray-Smith’s play should close with the speech that for many rightly or wrongly defines Julia Gillard’s Prime Ministership. With Bentley’s assistance, Clarke purposely assumes her impersonation, donning the wig of flaming red hair and the blue jacket that even provoked an ironic attack by Germaine Greer. It is a moment of truth telling. The child whose rebuttal won a school debate that men were not suited to be leaders now rebutted society’s right to judge on the grounds of gender.  

Clarke’s performance is a timely reminder that the anger is not quelled. It echoes still through the chambers of our parliament. It reverberates throughout society fuelled by prejudice and abuse of power. Murray-Smith’s play does not incite anger, but anger and fury are its postscript. I am left at the close of Sydney Theatre Company’s production asking after all the derision and disdain what has changed and what still needs to be done? This world premiere needs to reach out to the world. Its voice for change should not be heard in vain.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8130754/gillard-will-not-be-silenced-not-now-not-ever/

This review was published in The Canberra Times on March 3rd 2023.