The_Removalists

The Removalists The removalists deals with a lot of ideas/themes/issues. David Williamson shows the Australian population for the first time in a play and demonstrates symbolic characteristics to the Australian society. David Williamson looks at the Australian society through the themes, characters and concerns. E.g, The removalist represents the average working man with slang English and not very well educated. Violence There are many different acts of violence throughout the play. The first is when Fiona Carter and her sister Kate arrive at the police station. The two police officers Simmonds and the new recruit Ross interview the ladies asking what’s wrong. They later find out that Fiona has been bashed by her husband Kenny, this is an act of domestic violence. Simmonds also abuses his use of power and authority at Kenny’s house beating him up severely on many occasions. Characters Simmonds- He is a chauvinistic maniac who threatens everybody and abuses his right of power and authority. Simmonds has many conflicts with characters such as Ross in the beginning and talking about his father and Kate calling her a prostitute. Ross- He is just an average guy eager to start his new job as a police recruit. Then he meets Simmonds who is the start to him losing control and eventually beating up Kenny to his death. Kate- She is very proper and was brought up in a high class family. Kate looks down on everyone as if they are not good enough and she is better than everyone else. She is really a hypocrite as Kenny discovers when he got her drunk one night. Fiona- She is a very quiet character. She gets told what to do by her sister Kate, her husband Kenny and Simmonds; she makes no decisions for herself. Fiona is very insecure about her self Kenny- He is the typical working class Australian larrikin. The whole play is basically about Kenny’s treatment of Fiona and how he bashed her. Kenny pushes every characters to the edge and gets yelled at by Kate bashed by Simmonds and eventually killed by Ross. The Removalist- He is called to remove Fiona’s belongings from Kenny’s apartment. He plays the typical working class man just wanting to get down to business finish his job and move on to the next one. The title “the removalists” is very smartly chosen as many things in this play are “removed” for example Fiona is removed from Kenny’s life, Fiona’s furniture is removed from her apartment and in the end Ross removes Kenny from the play by killing him.