Golden Soil & Wealth For Toil (The National Drama School), at Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory

Taking its cue from bouffon, a form of theatrical performance rooted in grotesque mockery, satire and physical comedy, Golden Soil & Wealth For Toil takes aim at The Lucky Country.

Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1956 tragicomedy The Visit offered the perfect framing.

Photos by Darren Gill

For it is, indeed, a fair question to ask whether Australia is still the land of opportunity it was once seen to be.

Given the cost-of-living crisis and the widening gap between haves and have nots, it could reasonably be argued that the answer is a resounding “no”.

If the work offered up by the graduating cohort of The National Drama School and director Fabio Motta is anything to go by, they appear to be resolutely of that mind.

Take the movie Wall Street’s (1987) conceit that greed is good and up it. There is your starting point for Golden Soil & Wealth For Toil.

Off the back of bird sounds and a couple of kookaburra calls, 10 actors take to the stage singing Advance Australia Fair.

Their appearance is striking. Let’s call a spade a spade. They are ugly – grotesque, as they prowl and circle.

They are puffed up, with body enhancements and beige body suits that cover the top of their heads under their simple costuming. They have whitened faces and their make-up is deliberately excessive – just plain ugly.

We are in a place called Bendiwagga, which is struggling.

It is the birthplace of the now richest person in Australia – a rip off of Gina Rinehart. Only, she is known as Va-Gina Coleheart (Siem Putland). 

Please don’t sue me, Gina. I am just calling it as the play sees it.

Va-Gina left at age 17 and went on to forge her uber successful empire (well, at least she has grown it since she took it over from her father).

She has pillaged the land and grown fat (metaphorically) from it. 

But back in the day she used to date now married man Barry D’Live (Thomas Purcell).

Anyhoo, the prodigal daughter is about to return for a visit, her first since her departure and the townsfolk are rolling out the red carpet.

First up, there is a walk down memory lane with Barry, including a recollection of the pet names they used to call one another.

But Va-Gina has a hidden purpose for being in Bendiwagga.

She is out for vengeance because Barry wronged her … and she always maintained that she would get her own back.

Now is that pay day – literally.

She is pledging $2 billion dollars – $1 billion to the town and $1 billion to be shared by the residents – if they eliminate Barry.

Professing their loyalty to him, at first they reject the idea, but as their bills mount and Afterpay gets a real work out, the inevitable happens.

Using song, familiar pop and rock music, dance and narrative, Golden Soil & Wealth For Toil targets several touch points.

These include the economy, diversity, mateship, indigenous rights and climate change.

This is a play on the excessive, the exaggerated and the ridiculous. Everything is amplified – the physical presence of the actors very much in your face.

At certain junctures, they mingle with the audience and even break the fourth wall – vox pops are on the menu. 

Many assume multiple roles. All do so with aplomb, in a confident and impressive display of craftsmanship.

In short, they have fun with the material, presenting us with an entertaining and shocking look in the mirror.

They delight in the horrors, as do we. That is the whole idea.

Golden Soil & Wealth For Toil is bold and brazen, pivoting around the concept that “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

That quote is taken from a letter written by English historian Lord Acton in 1887.

Before this is over, the words of Advance Australia Fair have been rewritten.

The bottom line: be ashamed … be very ashamed, as the work interrogates where our values have gone.

Seventy minutes without interval, Golden Soil & Wealth For Toil is on at Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory until 29^th November, 2025.