Talk

Talk
By Jonathan Biggins. Sydney Theatre Company. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. April 3 to May 20, 2017

Jonathan Biggins’ compelling and entertaining play traverses three newsrooms simultaneously, coping with, or covering the unfolding drama that takes place when a talk-back radio host hijacks his own radio station.

The cracking set design by Mark Thompson depicted all three spaces at once.

On top of the rocket ship was a slick studio and control room of a commercial radio station newsroom (think 2GB). Underneath on the left of the stage (of course) from the audience’s perspective, a public broadcaster (the ABC) and on the bottom right the executive suite of a right-wing newspaper empire (so who could that be?).

Being a working journalist with direct experience in two of these work places, I delighted in the attention to detail, such as the frustration of getting guests lined up for a live radio program and the characters that inhibit a public broadcaster.

Much like a lawyer might also quibble with the brevity of a court room drama, compared to the real life drudgery of actually sitting in a court, I did find the debates a number of the journalists had about the competing demands of digital and 24 hour media with producing quality reports for the ‘legacy’ media such as newspapers and television a little unrealistic. Yes we do discuss these issues, but perhaps without so much exposition.

John Waters plays the central character of John Behan, a talk-back radio host being sought by Police on a contempt of court charge. The broadcaster was defying authorities by revealing the past history of a sex offender.

Behan escapes by locking himself into the gilded cage of his radio station studio, from where he can parrot anything he likes.  Because his conversations are with the radio audience and he rarely interacts with any actor, his character, surprisingly, is not the most engaging in the play.

Peter Kowitz as Taffy Campbell an ABC broadcaster working on the last day of his 38 year career had the more delicious character to portray. He rolls up his sleeve to help crack one last big yarn. 

“Hannah Waterman as Julie Scott, the steely Executive of News Limited lookalike, also shone. She had one of the best lines of the play when it was pointed out that her company faced the same challenges of declining newspaper sales as arch enemy Fairfax.

It was all about revenge she snarled. 

Jonathan Biggins also directed this production and whilst there are not nearly as many belly laughs as a Wharf Revue, there are enough gags to please his regular fans. Talk also provides an insight into the world of today and the future where an ever-shrinking pool of traditional journalists compete with an ever more dominant on-line media.

David Spicer

Photographer: Brett Boardman

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