This year marks David Williamson’s 50th anniversary as a playwright – and his retirement. Though he announced that he was retiring in 2005 due to illness, he quickly began writing for the theatre again when his health returned. But this time he is adamant that his playwriting days are over.

He is saying farewell with two final new comedies – the darkly funny Family Values for Griffin Theatre Company, and Crunch Time, which opens at the Ensemble Theatre in February.

Andrew McFarlane and Belinda Giblin. Photograph © Brett Boardman

Family Values hits the stage like a theatrical tsunami; an invigorating blast of anger from Williamson about Australia’s brutal, inhumane treatment of asylum seekers. Though he give the characters plenty of opportunity to argue back and forth about the concerns he wants addressed – with their heated debate also taking in the gradual curtailment of press and public freedom in Australia under a slew of new security laws, the impact of the Murdoch press, religion, and same-sex marriage – the characters don’t feel like mere mouthpieces as has been the case in some of his plays.

The characterisations may not be particularly deep, but there...