
Issue No 57		09 June 2000

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Review

Front Stage and Pulp Fiction

By Zoe Reynolds

The Waterfront War has made the transition from industrial showdown to cultural icon. Now it's inspiring artists.

Front Stage

MELBOURNE: Curtains go up on a play inspired by the Patrick Dispute in Melbourne this month. Writer and director Peter Houghton says he set out to wrap fiction around the 'bare bones of the dispute' In so doing he uses a fair bit of artistic license, creating his own players and personalities

to act out the drama on the stage. "There's a line that divides us. A line between right and wrong. Sometimes you can't see where it is. Sometimes it cuts you in half," he writes.

Front tells the story of the war on the wharves (unfortunately described in the play by the British term 'docks'). He does this through the eyes of sacked wharfies and their families, an undercover journalist and a one time

wharfie's mate and ex serviceman working with the Dubai mob.

Houghton does, however, take some unfortunate liberties with his script. One of his main characters, Curly, is a wharfie who scabs, something unheard of during the dispute (except for supervisors). Members may also be offended by Houghton scripting another off his main characters, Fido, as a bit of a simpleton. But Fido is balanced by the well read central

character, Jerry, who unwittingly finds himself in bed with the journo. And the fool in this Shakespearian plot does come out with some of the best lines: "Little fishes swim together, don't they? All of them in a group. No-one can make them stop. It's there nature. The fish are our ancestors, Jerry, and they all swim together," ends Curly, capturing the solidarity that wins the day in language anyone can understand.

Says Houghton: "From the beginning I wanted this to be a story about ordinary people. People who are flawed and complex. I wanted to see what happened to these people when the rug was pulled from under their feet, to see when people gave in and when people didn't."

On the whole a sympathetic look at the war between capital and labour on our wharves. It must be, The Melbourne Age gave it a scathing review for being too worker friendly.

Front, Theatreworks, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda, June 14 to July 1. Bookings 9534 3388.

PULPED FICTION

SYDNEY: Fairfax journalists Helen Trinca and Anne Davies, however could never be accused of getting into bed with the wharfies to research their account of the Patrick Dispute, Waterfront.

A pacey, well written suspense thriller, the book is somewhat spoilt by gratuitous and flawed character analysis. Corrigan refused to talk. But Trinca and Davies are obviously charmed by Reith to the extent the writers describe him as PM material.

This is probably the real reason that Treasurer Peter Costello, widely regarded as leaving Reith for dead in the race for the top job, thanks to the wharfies, chose to have the book withdrawn and pulped for a careless remark about his staff having forged documents leaked to Labor in 1996.

Police never found evidence to support these claims. But the book will be back on the shelves, with all its flaws and inaccuracies.

For example they refer to former Deputy National Secretary Tony Papaconstuntinas, Papa for short, as Papy throughout. And MUA National Secretary John Coombs adamantly denies the claim he agreed to sack 'troublemakers' to get the farmers off Webb Dock. We will leave it to readers to decide who to

believe, Mr Coombs or Mr Reith!. In the meantime don't expect a workers' history. Members play little part in the dispute according to the Fairfax duo. Trinca and Davies choose to focus on the court action, politics and top level union power play at the expense of the labour movement and the fish swimming in the undercurrents.

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  Issue 57 contents

Interview: Cocky Labor
On the eve of State Conference, Country Labor convenor Tony Kelly outlines how Labor is stealing the ground from under the National Party's feet.

Economics: Millenium Work Ethics - A New Social Partnership?
The future of work in the twenty-first century will be both provocative and challenging, according to Professor Russell Lansbury.

Politics: Extracting the Digit
Labor's federal communications spokesman Stehpen Smith outlines the Party's position on the controversial datacasting legislation currently before Parliament.

History: Hot Off the Press
Check out what's in the latest issue of Labour History - A Journal of Labour and Social History,

International: The East Timor of Africa
Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta will this week tell a Sydney audience of the parallels between East Timor and the nation described as the last colony in Africa - the Western Sahara.

Environment: MUA Snail Men Honoured
Brisbane wharfies Lehi Munday and Mal Monro look an unlikely Watson and Sherlock double, but their keen detective work has helped win the Southern Queensland MUA Branch two national environment awards.

Satire: Howard Says 'Sorry'
In a startling apology to the Aboriginal community, Prime Minister John Howard said last night he was deeply sorry that he turned up to the Corroboree 2000 celebrations.

Review: Front Stage and Pulp Fiction
The Waterfront War has made the transition from industrial showdown to cultural icon. Now it's inspiring artists.

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