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Why I read the play I read JEAN BETTS on Smack and Conversations with a Golliwog
Two powerful one-acters I directed in the ‘70s come to mind. I’m curious to see what a director would do with them today. Why did I read them? Playmarket had not been going long and scripts were pouring in, playwrights delighted that at last someone was willing to read them. I was one of the early readers. I was hoping to find ‘The Great NZ Play’ at a time when the NZ play was barely even a thing – but most were painfully drab, dates confirming they’d been shuffled out of bottom drawers into the light of day for the first time in decades. Working my way through them was really getting me down – and then Nonnita Rees handed me Smack, one of two short works submitted by young Aucklander Dean Parker, and suggested I direct it. I couldn’t believe my luck – it was electrifying, sparkling with energy, intelligence, anger and blistering humour. I felt I’d been hauled out of Gollum’s cave into the sunlight. Quinn, motoring down from Auckland to hometown Napier in his Bedford van with his wary girlfriend, whiles away the drive with a series of lengthy, fiercely funny, dodgy jokes. Underneath the apparent good humour he burns with ugly rage, furious at the hypocrisy
and corruption he sees everywhere – the family cruelty and indifference, the greed and inequality he blames for ruining the lives of his friends, for poisoning the world; the older generation savaging the young. Revolution is in the air; and he has a plan. Desperate for revenge and prepared to resort to violence to get it he’s singled out an unfortunate Napier bank manager as his victim. It’s a startling, savage piece of work, no doubt inspired by the plays Dean had seen during a recent stay in London where early Barkers, Shepards, Brentons and co were burning up the stage. It’s a tour de force for an extremely articulate and energetic young actor, in our case Stephen Tozer in top form. As well as the bank manager (a suitably baffled Peter Hayden) there are two small female parts – Quinn’s delicate girlfriend and a cheery hitchhiker. (The original script asked for two go-go girls in cages each side of the stage too. Well, it was the ‘70s. We cut them. He thanked us later.) I’d love to see it again – set in the ‘70s, still, of course, with its ‘70s drug scene, and it’s great ‘70s soundtrack.
