When Dad Married Fury

When Dad Married Fury reimagines the classic trope of the rich man and the gold digger, complete with adult children squabbling over estate. Here again, David Williamson is exploring ideologies and their effects on everyday lives through family drama.

The danger with such a familiar story line (think Lang Hancock and Rose Porteous, J Howard Marshall and Anna Nicole Smith and countless others) is that it could easily follow stereotyped lines. Williamson plays with audience expectations to surprising effect.  Until almost mid-way through the events are almost predictable, but as soon as our catalyst, new wife Fury, arrives, Williamson starts to flesh out stereotypes in unpredictable ways.

In the last few Williamson plays I’ve seen, I’ve ended up playing Where’s David – there’s always a character which seems to voice his thoughts. In this one I think it’s daughter-in-law Laura (Tanya Byrne), and her lines are wry and often funny commentary on the base motives of the others. She doesn’t want any part of the spectacle, as her father has just committed suicide having lost all his money in one of Alan’s schemes. Jan Friedl, in a standout performance, plays Laura’s bereaved, sick and poor elderly mother Judy with quiet dignity. Meanwhile the other characters are various shades of appalling. Dennis Moore as the new husband Alan Urquhart is a greedy, contemptible, lying oaf almost completely without redeeming feature. Engineer son Ian (David James) and his lawyer wife Sue (Nell Feeny) are greedy and snarky. Alan’s other son, literature lecturer Ben, is more empathetic, but he still covets his father’s fortune out of envy for the lifestyle of his brother.

The most interesting of all however is Alan’s new wife, title character Fury—a fluffy-toy obsessed American whose name derives from a childhood corruption of the word “furry”. Annie Last plays her as captivating, charming, good natured, somehow naïve, and ultimately complex and nuanced. She gives the play depth.

The production itself is excellent, and it’s great to see such a minimalist set used so naturalistically. Williamson’s dialogue these days may have less of the barbed wit he used in the 70s, but it has mellowed to satisfying rueful irony. All in all, an interesting, thoughtful and funny work, and I hope Canberrans take the opportunity to see while it is in town.

Cathy Bannister

Images: The full cast of When Dad Married Fury and Annie Last (Fury).