Housework: Susie Youssef on women taking up space in Sydney Theatre Company’s political satire

Actor, writer and comedian Susie Youssef is a daughter of Lebanese parents and grew up as one of six sisters, and they all “knew how to behave ourselves when we entered a room”.

Don’t be too loud, don’t take up too much space, be courteous, assess the situation – it’s the kind of prudent advice handed down to generations of daughters. But it’s also been holding women back.

“That conditioning takes a very long time to undo,” Youssef told The Nightly. “I mean, my sisters are very well behaved women, but I think I’ve probably broken the mould a little.”

Youssef is staring in Housework, a political comedy currently in a revival season at the Sydney Theatre Company. It’s set in the Machiavellian halls of Parliament House, where no one is going to cede any time and attention to you, have to demand it.

That’s exactly what her character, Ruth Mandour, a former nurse and now first-time MP does.

“She’s unapologetic and she is not afraid to take up space,” Youssef explained. “That is definitely something I have struggled with most of my life. A lot of women would say they’ve had a similar experience.

“(Ruth) reminding me of that was a really pivotal moment for me in playing this character and being unafraid to just be bigger. I felt like a giant ham running around stage at first, but I was also liberated by it. Then the comedy changes because of that.”

Whether it’s for a better performance or for life outcomes, taking up space is exactly what Housework is going for.

The play was written by Emily Steel, and before it centred itself on the story of former nurse Ruth and her arrival in Canberra, it had started life as a drama about Julia Gillard. But then another production about Gillard’s life, Julia by Joanna Murray-Smith, was produced and Steel changed tack.

Politics and public debate change quickly, too quickly, and even in the 18 months since Housework played in Adelaide, the national conversation has shifted. But what remains unchanged are the themes in Housework.

What is the experience of being a woman in Australian politics? With immigration, cost-of-living, inflation and global conflict splashed across the headlines, have we forgotten about something that seemed so urgent only a handful of years ago?

“It goes in waves, doesn’t it?” Youssef reflected. “It depends so much on the media cycle, which is a total rollercoaster. This play definitely touches on women in politics, but it also speaks to women’s healthcare because my character, Ruth, is a nurse who spoke up during the lockdowns about women’s health.

“I feel so excited that conversation is being had in a way in which people receive it with both gravity and humour. To sit on that stage every night and be talking about things like endometriosis, about the way that medications aren’t calibrated for women, and things like that, it’s awful but it’s exciting it’s being spoken about.”

In the Sydney production, joining a cast which also includes Emily Taheny is veteran broadcaster Indira Naidoo in a dual role – one as a cleaner, the other is hush-hush – and with that came along a lot of people in media and politics who knows Naidoo.

“We’ve heard a lot of different conversations in the foyer, especially on opening night,” Youssef said. “We’ve had so many staffers and politicians come through. Some people have said it’s so close to home, it’s scary.

“Others have been like, ‘It’s nice to be able to laugh at some aspects of it’. The general vibe has been, ‘I haven’t seen this level of attention on stage about women in politics that feels so true’.”

It’s often the case that it’s satire that hits closest to that truth. Perhaps it’s that comedy and art makes it feel removed in a way from reality. It’s almost as if it has permission to be more incisive, to carve deeper.

“It took me a long time to digest some of the lines that my character has to say,” Youssef recalled. “It was very comfortable. (Ruth) speaks about leaving it too long to have kids, and I’m a woman in my forties without kids.

“As far as the political landscape goes, it’s so cutting, but done in a way that I remember Indira saying one night, ‘You can’t do this with stories in the news because people are affronted by it’. It just hits too close to the bone.

“By adding humour in it, you can get a conversation going from a different angle.

“Stuff hasn’t changed enough. There is progress here and there, and we see it, but it does feel like this is the absolute slowest that progress could be happening with women in politics.”

Housework is playing at the Sydney Theatre Company until October 17