Katherine Thomson’s play Diving for Pearls premiered in 1991 – but all these years on it feels as timely, topical and moving as ever in this beautifully wrought production at Griffin Theatre Company.

^{Steve Rodgers and Ursula Yovich. Photograph © Brett Boardman}

Set during the recession in the late 1980s in a steel-making town on the New South Wales coast, which is unnamed but clearly based on Wollongong, the play deals with the human cost of economic rationalisation. It focusses on two working-class people, struggling to survive in a rapidly changing world. After the funeral of a friend who has hung himself, Barbara (Ursula Yovich) meets up again with former flame Den (Steve Rodgers) and their relationship is rekindled. For a while, they enjoy a brief respite of happiness. Barbara realises that things are not what they were. Determined to try and better her life, she badgers Den into paying big bucks for her to go and study etiquette and hospitality, hoping to land a job at a beachside hotel, which is opening in the town and will soon be hiring.

“I’m not stupid,” she says. “I’ve gone into it. I know...