Who I’m Doing This For (Melbourne Writers’ Theatre), at Meat Market Stables

Claudia (Emily Farrell) and Simon (Lochie Laffin-Vines) are a seemingly happily married young couple.

Simon works in finance, while Claudia’s career thus far has been in aged care, although she would like to move into teaching young children.

Simon is up for promotion. Claudia is excited for him and supportive. She is busily planning their next holiday. 

Photos by Mina Shafer

And then the penny drops. Simon’s boss (played by Tony Adams) doesn’t come through with his elevation, leaving Simon devastated.

He takes the news so badly that he is booted from his job.

Simon doesn’t tell his wife, instead informing her that despite being overlooked for promotion the firm is still sending him to Canberra for a presentation.

She reads that as a positive sign that the business still values him.

The truth is that Simon is planning something far more nefarious.

He is a man with skeletons in the closet that now coalesce. 

His father (also played by Tony Adams) was a Vietnam veteran who returned from war a changed man.

Suffering from PTSD, he became a violent alcoholic who treated his wife and young Simon shamefully.

Try as Simon did to please him, he couldn’t and his father was never affectionate towards him.

It is a heavy burden that Simon continues to carry.

Simon’s life has also descended into heroin fixes. He is a junkie and now his axing pushes him over the edge.

Written by Peter Farrar, Who I’m Doing This For has some important things to say about familial relations, the importance of a fulfilling job and the impact of war.

Still, while dramatic, I found the treatment of these subjects obvious and heavy handed.

I picked where it was heading early on and there were few, if any, surprises.

I would have liked to have seen the issues treated more subtly – with a less is more approach.

An effective device that Farrar uses is to reveal Simon’s relationship with his father in flashback.

In terms of Simon’s disconnect with the world, he also invents a character in his mind, being an elderly next-door neighbour.

The actors do a reasonable job, with Lochie Laffin-Vines doing the lion’s share of the heavy lifting, although all could afford to relax more into their characterisations.

The hardest thing for any performer is to bring authenticity to their role, so the audience truly believes they have transformed into who they are playing.

All three have these moments, but I would have appreciated more of them, which may well come as the season progresses.

I attended the first night and, at times, I found they pushed too hard.

Having said that, Emily Farrell needs to project more for there were occasions when I couldn’t hear what she was saying (I was sitting in the back row).

With a simple set (a couch, chair and a couple of side tables, with some props), projections on the back wall reflect the settings in which the action takes place. The latter is the work of Martin Hunter.

In summary, although involving to a point, Who I’m Doing This For would benefit from further work.

Directed by Steven T. Boltz, it is playing at Meat Market Stables until 1^st April, 2026.