The Give and Take

THE GIVE AND TAKE by Tony McNamara.

Director: Catherine Fitzgerald
Designer: Mary Moore
Composer: Ian Moorhead
Cast includes: Chris Asimos, Rhiannon Owen

Ever had a sneaking suspicion that Australian society is built on corruption, greed and self-serving narcissism?

Then Tony McNamara's your man. But his latest play turns this misanthropic misgiving into a wisecracking, side-splitting, laugh-a-minute sitcom. From the first moment to the last, The Give and Take unabashedly goes for the laugh and gets it. There are, if you need that sort of thing, take-home messages about the emptiness of materialism and the corruption of family life, but basically this is a broad, smart-alecky satire about parenting, the younger generation and love that is strictly conditional and convertible to cash.

Don is an executive. His mind should be on his firm's latest line of garden sprinklers. But his wife just told him she's leaving to have tantric sex in Tuscany. When he tells his three children, they aren't surprised: they're a self-absorbed trio only interested in Dad's money. Neil is a leftist layabout. Julie is a corporate cowgirl.

And Damien is a steroid-stuffed gym-bunny. There's no reason why their cushy lifestyles shouldn't continue into the foreseeable future as long as Don doesn't do anything crazy...