Life After George

Synopsis

George, the eponymous hero has one particularly striking feature: he's dead. The play runs as a series of flashbacks, seen from the perspective of his three ex wives who meet to discuss his funeral arrangements. They mull over George's life as a charismatic university professor with a history of hippy activities in the 60s, with each wife representing a different era in George's life.

Our Review:

20 February 2002

Academics in this age of educational commercialisation will sympathise with Peter George, the radical professor in this new Australian import by Hannie Rayson. Too bad then that Rayson's overly clever construction is apt to leave the rest of the population low on that or any other emotion for the characters inhabiting the Duchess stage.

With the thrice-married George dead, the women in his life - two ex-wives, the half-his-age final spouse and grown-up daughter - have gathered, along with best mate Duffy (Richard Hope), to sift through the ashes of a dead husband/father/friend and his deader-still philosophies. The piece begins and ends with George's funeral, and in between, journeys back and forth over the three preceding decades since 1969.

Along the way, there are some interesting 'thinky' asides about social nostalgia, the value of higher education and the perceived failures of feminism, radicalism, Marxism and a bunch of other -isms. George himself sets his politic...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 28 February 2002:

Worthy performances from Cheryl Campbell, Stephen Dillane and Suzannah Wise and the others were fine. An interesting look at the capitalistic influence of the private sector on education - makes one think about the influence of the pharmaceutical companies and research in our universities. i hated the set, which i found depressing and cumbersome and the costumes were weary, a little editing could have helped, but overall i enjoyed it- as did most people around me in the audience....

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