The desire to keep up with the Joneses – your neighbour with a bigger house/more expensive car/better kitchen marble. It’s real, it exists, and David Williamson explores it all in the world premiere of his new play, The Social Ladder, playing at The Ensemble this month.
Council cultural arts worker Katie has grown up poor and worked hard since her teens. Now married to a successful entrepreneur, she can see the way to wash the working class stains off through a vacant seat on a prestigious arts board. And she’s willing to do all it takes to get there. Sydney actor Mandy Bishop is back at The Ensemble after almost two decades away, with the years dominated by work on impersonating former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, as well as the revered (and now no more) Wharf Revue. Mandy is thrilled to be playing the role of Katie in a Williamson play, ‘a right of passage for an Australian actor.’
“The play is a rollicking ride!” exclaims Mandy. It’s centred around a dinner party to which Katie has invited billionaire Sydney power couple Charles and Catherine Mallory, in an effort to get herself on the board they are involved with. “She invites the billionaires to dinner with a few white lies under her belt in order to lure them to her nest,” Mandy explains. “Then she mixes the dinner party with some old friends who may know a bit more about her than she was ready to reveal.”
The unfortunate pairing of her friends who are polar opposites – economically and socially – with the Mallorys creates some hilarious scenes as things start to unravel for Katie. But through the mishaps, Williamson is seeking to explore class structures which are not necessarily very obvious in Australian society, Mandy says. “I think largely still in Australia we have this tall poppy syndrome and we are not comfortable with ambition in many circles,” Mandy explains. “It’s only just becoming OK for women to be ambitious (in some circles).”
The desperation Katie feels is actually an attempt to heal the wounds of ‘lacking’ from her childhood, Mandy says. “We must not pity her, but we must be able to identify with her. And that’s going to be very uncomfortable for some in the audience, yes!”
Mandy Bishop during rehearsals for The Social Ladder
To prepare for the role, Mandy drew on her own experiences of rejection throughout her career. “I’m imagining every time I’ve ever been caught out lying on the way to trying to follow my dream,” Mandy reveals. “I think there’s a lovely aspect of desperation in there and as an artist we’ve had to face that time and time again. Desperation, rejection, relying on other people to help us make a connection with someone we need to connect with, either socially or emotionally, or for some professional reason.
“I’ve drawn on all those things, where if I was nakedly ambitious I would speak my ambitious mind all the time. But I think it’s a cultural thing in Australia where we might mask our ambition a little, and we also have to be totally OK with it never coming to fruition as an artist.”
The part of Charles is played by veteran actor Andrew McFarlane (think Neighbours, The Flying Doctors, Paradise Beach and occasional Play School presenter), who she describes as ‘so lovely, and I trust him implicitly, as an actor, and as a co-cast mate, and as a person worthy of great respect.’ They last acted together in an Ensemble play 17 years ago, and Mandy says she feels ‘blessed’ they are performing again.
She encourages all to come and see someone light a rocket to Katie’s ambition towards her dream life, and ‘everyone she’s called in to help hilariously stuff it up for her.’
The Social Ladder 28 January to 14 March The Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli ensemble.com.au