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D.H. Lawrence meets A.V. Jennings in this tribute to suburban showbiz.
The clublands of the title are in the outer rim of Sydney's rugby league belt, places like Penrith Panthers and the Cronulla Sharks Leagues club, where working people go for good, honest, budget-priced entertainment. Instead, they get Jean Dwight (the English actress Brenda Blethyn), whose stand-up comedy routine is a form of revenge - a spikey patter of harsh jokes about sex and genitalia and why all men are bastards. She specialises in put-downs delivered with that cool, forced smile that Blethyn has made one of her trademarks.
Jean is a disappointed woman in all aspects of her life. She was once a rising star of English comedy, sharing the stage with the likes of Morecambe and Wise and Tommy Cooper. Then she fell in love with an Australian country singer who had a hit in the UK - his only one, as it turned out. John Maitland (Frankie J. Holden) persuaded her to come to Australia, they had two boys, one of whom was brain damaged at birth, the marriage dissolved, leaving her in a hideous suburban house, unable to drive and with her best years behind her.
© The Sydney Morning Herald.
