The Australian author and playwright, Hannie Rayson, has found it necessary to respond to a recent critical review of her new play, Two Brothers, by Tom Hyland. According to Hyland, the play is "a compelling, provocative and entertaining dramatic thriller", but a political polemic nonetheless. He believes that Rayson "has produced a piece of propaganda that deals in stereotypes, preaches to the converted and panders to prejudice". Which is pretty strong criticism for a piece of political fiction.
And this is the point that Rayson attempts to make today: "I chose to write a political thriller - a form of entertainment that looks cruelty, ambition and injustice in the face. The play opens on a dark and stormy night with a cabinet minister stabbing a man to death, in self-defence. That clearly signals to an audience that we have leapt into fiction." It appears to me that Hyland wanted to see a play about a particular event, he wanted it treated factually and "truthfully" so the "real" events could be examined. I think it fair to say that Hyland went seeking one thing and got another, and was not too pleased by the occurrence. And that's hardly a fair basis on which to build a critical review.
