A Handful of Friends
play written by David Williamson
A Handful of Friends is a 1976 play by Australian playwright, David Williamson.
Background
The play was written for the South Australian Theatre Company and directed by associate director Rodney Fisher. It was Williamson's third play presented by the company and the second written especially for them.
Synopsis
Set in Australia, Russell and his wife Wendy have recently returned from the US, to find that their director friend Mark has released a film in which his wife, Sally, plays a role. Mutual friends suspect that the film's characters are based on Russell (who is an alcoholic) and Wendy, and that they have been cruelly satirised. This ultimately triggers long-standing tensions and resentments, briefly culminating in violence, before reconciliation and the wisdom of hindsight occurs.
The play examines and exposes how easily an individual can take advantage of opportunism, in order to gain a sense of fulfilment through the character assassination of another.
Characters
Russell McAlister, a director who is an alcoholic
Wendy McAlister, Russell's wife
Jill McAlister, Russell's sister
Mark Marshall, a filmmaker / director
Sally Marshall, an actor / journalist and Mark's wife
Productions
World premiere
The play had its world premiere at The Playhouse in Adelaide on 20 May 1976 and ran until 12 June 1976. It starred Neil Fitzpatrick, John Gaden, Julie Hamilton, Sandra MacGregor and Lyndel Rowe and was directed by Rodney Fisher. The costume designer was Anna French and the set was designed by Shaun Gurton.
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This entry incorporates text from “A Handful of Friends” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.