Hard going

A Hard God is an Australian play in the vein of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, originally written in 1973 as part of a trilogy known as The Cassidy Album. The other two plays in the trilogy are Furtive Love and An Eager Hope. The character of Joe Cassidy is the one character common to all three plays. Playwright Peter Kenna describes A Hard God as “organic art”, making a play out of things that happen to real people. So it’s no surprise that A Hard God’s characters are based on Kenna’s own family. The Cassidy trilogy is Kenna’s tribute to his parents, the stories of which came, as Kenna puts it, straight out of his veins.

It’s 1946, the first year of peace after World War II, the year many thousands of servicemen returned to Australia to marry and start families. On the horizon the Cold War looms. The Cassidy family is typically Catholic Irish-Australian, with conservative Labor party leanings. The Cassidy family lives in the shadow of their God. Their religion affects family members in different ways, most of which are negative. Dogma becomes superstition, piety becomes fanaticism and Christian charity and forgiveness are in very short supply.

The Cassidy family revolves around the household of Dan (Max Gillies) and Aggie Cassidy (Jackie Weaver). Dan and Aggie were driven from the land by drought. In the city they survived the Depression, eventually making a comfortable living for themselves. Dan is a devout Catholic, but Aggie is cynical about religion and the role God has played in their lives. Her religion is her family. “Do you know what Dan? I think you’ve been my religion. I’ve loved you above everything else in my whole life,” says Aggie, with typical irreverence.

Dan’s brothers, Martin (Ralph Cotterill) and Paddy (Maeliosa Stafford) are married to Monica (Kerry Walker) and Sophie respectively. Martin has become a reclusive poet, estranged from his religiously fanatical wife Monica. Sophie is an alcoholic gambler. She personifies uncontrolled dissipation, which Catholic scripture condemns. Paddy is too weak to stand up to her, even when she drunkenly threatens his life and takes up with another man under his own roof. When we meet the Cassidy family, the brothers have both foisted themselves and their problems on their long suffering brother, Dan, whose shoulders have always been there for them to cry on. It’s a burden Aggie resents them dumping on Dan, especially given his failing health. But the brothers are his blood and Dan, ever a good Catholic, will not turn them away.

The Cassidy brothers’ relationship with God is best summed up in the dialogue between Dan and Martin. Martin says “Oh, he’s a hard God, Dan.” Dan responds by saying there must be a pattern to it, if only they could see it. “That is his hardness, Dan”, says Martin, “he doesn’t allow us to. We just have to stumble on blindly with his mercy raining down on us like thunderbolts.” The double edged sword of religious faith is evident in this exchange. Martin has faith in his God, but that faith has been tested again and again with the adversities of a harsh existence. Martin might as well be saying, ‘Oh, Lord why hast though forsaken me?’

The play’s sub-plot involves Dan and Aggie’s son, Joe’s (Ben Mathews), relationship with a new friend, Jack (David Lyons), a needy loner. They meet at a Catholic Youth centre and strike up a friendship, which turns into something deeper. They deal with the affair very differently. One seeks the comfort and forgiveness of religion to absolve his shame. The other rejects the religion he has grown up with, because it condemns their affections.

Dan and Aggie’s story is endearing. The stories of the brothers are interesting and colourful. But it is Joe’s story which is the most compelling, not least because of the acting talents of Mathews and Lyons. Their performance was so engrossing I wished the play was more about them, than the others. The drama between the two boys steals the show. It’s energetic, enigmatic and fraught with the sort of emotional conflict that religion just further complicates.

To fully appreciate this play you need to understand the times in which it is set. But even then, it's difficult to understand its relevance today, until you are introduced to the timeless story of the sub-plot. Nevertheless, it is a play worth seeing, even if just for the sub-plot . A Hard God is a classic Australian play which reminds us where we’ve come from, even if we sometimes have difficulty seeing ourselves reflected in it.

Philippa Wherrett

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A Hard God

Company: Sydney Theatre Company
Venues: Wharf 1 Theatre, Hicksons Point, Sydney
Dates: To 29 April 2006