Damage: A collection of plays by John Romeril

Romeril's writing conveys the immediacy of the times that stems from his beginnings as an agitprop writer, but he focuses on everyday lives. The plays in Damage explore twentieth-century stresses and strains, the damage we do and the damage done to us. This collection, introduced by John McCallum, includes three previously unpublished works. Jonah is a Brechtian musical reinvention of Louis Stone's novel of the same name. Top End is a political drama set in Darwin during the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. Lost Weekend takes a class-based look at 'Australianess'. The Floating World is the story of a returned serviceman's descent into madness on a cruise ship bound for Japan.