Don's Party

Synopsis

A suburban Melbourne home, election night 1969. Political hopes and personal disappointments collide in a booze-fuelled gathering.

Don Henderson, a schoolteacher, hosts an election night party anticipating a Labour victory. As the night unfolds and hopes for political change fade, the gathering of friends – including Mal and his bitter wife Jenny, the lecherous Cooley with his young girlfriend Susan, and the seemingly perfect couple Evan and Kerry – descends into a maelstrom of regret, sexual tension, and shattered illusions.

Williamson’s seminal play is a biting satire of Australian middle-class aspirations and disillusionment. Through sharp dialogue and increasingly fraught interactions, the playwright examines themes of failed ambition, marital discontent, and the generational divide of late 1960s Australia. As alcohol flows and inhibitions loosen, the characters reveal the hollow core of their suburban dreams and unfulfilled promises.

The election results serve as a backdrop to more personal defeats, with the men’s boorish behaviour and the women’s quiet desperation painting a damning portrait of gender relations and social progress. “Don’s Party” offers a brutally honest and darkly comic snapshot of a nation on the cusp of change, where the promise of a new political era collides with the entrenched attitudes of a generation struggling to adapt.