Williamson: Collected Plays Volume IV: Cruise Control; Dream Home; Happiness; Jack of Hearts

David Williamson is the most popular, prolific and produced playwright in Australian history. These four comedies consolidate his place as a great dramatic entertainer. Williamson turns his unflinching gaze on the foibles and follies of married life and life itself.

In Jack of Hearts, Williamson has written his charm into a lovable loser who does his best to disprove the theory that nice guys always finish last.

In Cruise Control three philandering, bickering and workaholic couples board a cruise ship travelling from London to New York for seven days of marital healing.

Dream Home follows Dana and Paul, whose dream turns into a nightmare when they discover their perfect beachside flat is festering with neighbours’ grudges, death threats, come-ons, heart-to-hearts, the smell of oysters … and Paul’s ex-girlfriend living upstairs in the throes of regret.

In Happiness, Williamson follows Roland, a professor of Wellbeing, and his cynical wife Hanna as they grapple with the elusiveness of the emotion.