Australian plays encourage audiences to feel empathy for the outsider by showing that families are a weakness, they have the ability to make or break a person and Australian plays shows that by using realism to gain empathy for a minority group or person. In the play ‘Ruby Moon’ by Matt Cameron and ‘Gary’s House’ by Debra Oswald, they show the aspects of family but not in a traditional way, whereas ‘Ruby Moon’ portrays a couple grieving for their lost child with a hope to find her, while ‘Gary’s House’ displays a man starting a family but has trouble due to his own broken family. The themes that are shown in Gary’s House are isolation, emotional understanding, and guilt, whereas ‘Ruby Moon’ contains themes such as Suburban paranoia, guilt, and isolation. A parents love for their child is the greatest love on earth, but imagine losing that child. One moment they are here and the next they are gone, that is exactly what occurs in the play ‘Ruby Moon’ by Matt Cameron.
The theme of paranoia is represented in the play Ruby Moon as the playwright uses several techniques and dialogue to indicate this notion.
