Australian
Screen

Clip description

Frank (Leo McKern) and his companion Frances (Julia Blake) open a bottle of French champagne to celebrate their arrival in Port Douglas. The isolation and privacy, says Frank, is the best part, just as their neighbour Freddie (Graham Kennedy) arrives to greet them. Frank is less than welcoming, but Frances offers him a drink. Freddie warns of the dangers of life in paradise – drinking, depression and death!

Curator’s notes

Williamson wastes no time in getting to the big subject here – death – but it’s so lightly arrived at, with very naturalistic humour, that we’re almost unaware that this is a scene of portent, as in classical drama. Frank does indeed begin to suffer depression in this beautiful place, brought about by a diagnosis of angina. His great plans for a long and romantic retirement are about to be frustrated – another great tradition of classical drama. There are signs that Williamson was thinking about King Lear when he wrote the play. At one stage, Frank refers to Frances’s complaining daughters as Goneril and Regan – the two daughters of Lear (see clip two). Travelling North, in a very loose way, follows the same trajectory, towards the death and demoralisation of a man who is too proud, ambitious and egotistical to be very kind to those around him. Leo McKern was a veteran Shakespearean actor, having performed many times with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He brought a sense of stature to the role of Frank, who is a man of many gifts, none of which is humility.