The Truth About Kookaburras

The 2009 Kookaburras version sold out at Metro Arts. That probably accounts for the ticket rush this season.  

The frisson of watching thirteen nude AFL players in their locker room cavorting in politically incorrect ways during Act I led to that 2009 ticket rush. This version has a full AFL team! Any wonder they’re selling out?

Arts Queensland sponsored a session for Swenson with triple-Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee at The Master Teaches the Masters 2010 in Sydney. Albee’s advice to him, in essence, was: You’re saying something important about masculinity in this century; if you need to increase your cast, do it.

The play remains a powerful piece of theatre with much to say about man’s place in modern life. It was superbly played but I’m not convinced the new version ─ 28 actors took the final bow ─ is better than the original. It’s a multi-layered plot but Act 3 became too pedantic, too academic, and that diminished the surprise ending.

Despite the unwieldy cast, this is fine theatre. The Truth about Kookaburras deserves a place in the canon of great Australian plays.

Jay McKee

Photographer: Kate O'Sullivan