Don's Party

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Don's Party
Directed by	Bruce Beresford
Written by	David Williamson
Starring	Ray Barrett, Candy Raymond, Clare Binney, Pat Bishop
Release date(s)	1976
Running time	90 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Don's Party is a 1971 Australian play set during the 1969 Australian federal election. Adapted to a 1976 film by David Williamson and directed by Bruce Beresford, Don's Party stars John Hargreaves as Don Henderson, a schoolteacher living with his wife, Kath (Jeanie Drynan), in a suburb of Sydney in 1969. Out of boredom, he invites a small group of friends to celebrate a predicted Australian Labor Party (ALP) election victory, much to the dismay of his wife.

As the party wears on, it becomes clear that the ALP, whom are supported by Don and most of the guests, are not winning. As a result the drinking goes up a few notches, and the humorous "cracking-on" between Don and his male friends about their failed aspirations gets uglier, as does their behaviour toward the women.

Mack (Graham Kennedy), a design engineer whose wife has just left him, pulls out a nude photo of her for his friends' approval. Cooley (Harold Hopkins), whose professed passions are "shaving, shitting, and shagging," but apparently not in that order, pursues the available women. Meanwhile, the disillusioned wives exchange tales of their husbands' subpar sexual performance.

By the end of the night, Don and some of his friends have begun to grasp the emptiness of their compromised lives.