The Season at Sarsaparilla: dated, dreary

Sydney Theatre Company.

This is a stunning production: bold, powerful, funny, moving and wise... The acting is marvellous...This is White for the 21st century. John McCallum, The Australian

McCallum's review? what can I say?

Now nearly fifty years old, this play is as dated as Dad and Dave and Ginger Meggs. It is also an extraordinarily one-dimensional view of Australia's post-war suburbs by someone who clearly had no empathy for its inhabitants and could care even less. The humour relies on tired stereotypes and the characterisation is trite. It probably appeals to people who like to sneer at the lower classes - how horrible of them to go to work every day, how dreary!

To be honest, I left at interval. The set design is very good but after marvelling at that, I found nothing else worth staying for and by the interval I was really struggling. Everything White has to say about the people of Sydney's suburbs is said in the opening scene.