Social and Cultural Issues Represented within The Removalists Olivia Clare 12th Grade

Theatre reflects the society from which it springs, and in the case of The Removalists by David Williamson (1971), this reflection is an exploration of cultural and social issues of Australian society. Set in Melbourne in 1970’s Australian society, David Williamson investigates power, through the dynamics between men and women, and the violent relationships between Australians as a whole, focusing on the corruption of the police force that was most prevalent at this time. It is through my personal experience of performing this play and seeing them performed before me, that is ultimately informed by my experiential and literary study, that I can understand the concepts it explores to its entirety.

Ian Turner’s Introduction to The Removalists, written in 1972 (one year after David Williamson’s play was published), begins the discussion of the relationships between people in 1970’s Australia, a concept undeniably explored throughout the text. “The male-female relationship in Australia rests on a frightening sub-stratum of violence…But beyond that the Australian code of aggressive masculinity (which found its first expression in “mateship”) involves the positive isolation of women in their role as sexual objects.” Evidence of...