The Removalist

The Removalist
Characters:
- Sergeant Dan Simmonds, a senior policeman. He is a corrupt and egotistic bully who abuses his powers for his sexual desires. He dominates Ross through humiliation and false paternalism.
- Constable Neville Ross is portrayed as a typical young ‘experienced’ Australian, however he is inexpert and despite all his training he is not prepared for ‘all eventualities’ (p. 43)
- Kenny is a feisty and unpretentious working class Australian. He fails to view women as anything else besides a sexual object.
- Kate Mason is a snobbish suburban dentist, she dominates her younger sister. Her dominance over Fiona is equivalent to that of Simmonds over Ross.
- Fiona Carter is far less sophisticated than her older sister; she is indecisive and is reluctant to leave Kenny. She then feels doubt on reporting her husband to the police.
- The Removalist is a young impatient furniture mover. He easily dominates Ross and refuses to be bullied by Simmonds but at the same time he offers no help to Kenny.

Themes:
Violence dominates the play but does so in a comically, absurd way. Violence in the play is inevitable as said by Simmonds, ‘The world is full of human beings’, suggesting that it is human nature to be violent thus inevitable. All characters in the play follow certain stereotypes. Male violent is very dominant in the play as the males are incapable of expressing their internal conflicts and frustrations and as a result resort to violence. This can be seen when Kenny beats up Fiona up for not emptying the kitchen tidy, rather than discussing the problem, or simply doing it himself.
Police Violence is also a concern although the underlying problem is relationships. Simmonds takes advantage over his powers and uses them to his needs. This is proven by the actions (or no actions) by other characters in the play. The almost suggests that policeman can whatever they want.
Role Playing is seen throughout the play; the characters conform to whatever is socially acceptable even in ‘tough’ times or when it is unreasonable to do so. This is proved when Kenny acts as the tough guy even when he literally gets beaten to death, and also how Simmonds plays ‘the tough cop for the ladies’, even though previously where he had no reason for his sexual desires.
Hypocrisy in the play is also a concern as conflicting values have been pointed as, for example Simmonds making a sexual advances towards Kate and Fiona and then has an moral outrage at Kate for having an adulterous affair, and then later prides himself in sexual self-control.

Dramatic Techniques and Scenes:
The Removalists uses dramatic techniques such as realistic setting, ordinary characters, comedy, and everyday language. It uses these to add meaning to the play as without these the play could turn into something tedious and instructive and also losing its impact on violence.
The two settings are very dull and they serve as backgrounds to identical lives. All characters all have qualities of everyday

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