Summary
Scene 1
The scene opens on the beach where Vic and Harry have been vacationing, but now Gwen and Jim have joined them. Vic and Harry discuss the lush and unspoiled riches of the natural site, with Jim agreeing that the spot is lovely and Gwen giving only perfunctory nods. Jim then begins to explain how they came upon the site. After the storm, their family salvaged a few things and stayed for a couple days in a motel, where the owner made them uncomfortable, so they started to head home. On the way, though, Meg saw a sign for this beach and insisted that they turn off. Vic and Harry remark that this was particularly lucky, since Gwen and Jim have arrived in time for the campsite's amateur night.
Suddenly, Coral enters in a straw hat, kaftan, and scarf. Vic, not recognizing Coral, calls her "the artist" (43) and remarks at how interestingly self-possessed, independent, and quiet she appears to be. This sets off Gwen, who bursts into a violent monologue expressing her dislike and rage towards those "mad" people who have "no direction, no ambition" (44). Sensing trouble, Vic then takes Gwen for a walk to calm down.
Now alone, Jim and Harry talk past each other for a bit, with Harry talking about how much he loves Australia and Jim justifying his wife's bad behavior. Harry then launches into a monologue about why their family left England, saying that "it was like living with an elderly relative, tired, cranky, who doesn't want you to have any fun but just worry about their health all the time" (44-45). He goes on to say that their son Tom is terminally ill with leukemia, and that he and Vic try not to be too sad about it, treasuring each moment they can with their son. This stupefies Jim, who Harry then tells not to say anything to anyone regarding Tom's health.
Gwen and Vic return, sobbing and supporting one another. Vic and Harry leave to go get some things for Tom's performance in the amateur show and leave Gwen and Jim alone. Then, once alone, Gwen tells Jim that she is amazed and sad beyond belief for Vic and Harry, and she apologizes to Jim for her bad behavior. She tries to take a Bex powder, but she is revulsed by it, and as the scene closes, she and Jim walk into the soothing sea water.
Scene 2
Tom and Meg are having a conversation on the beach. Tom tells Meg that the artist is in fact Coral, the wife of their headmaster, and that she left her husband on New Year's Eve, fleeing from their luxury hotel. Tom explains that she fled her husband after his threat to have her put away, though she seems no longer to be mad. Meg and Tom agree that Coral looks like Kim Novak. Meg then talks about how her mother wanted to simply return home, and how she had to fight and argue with her to turn at this beach and not waste their family holiday.
Meg wants Tom to walk with her to the headland, but Tom insists that they sit down for a while. Tom tries to coerce Meg into having sex with him, but when she refuses and threatens to scream, Tom breaks down and says that he is very sick. He tells her about going to the hospital and being able to see through the doctor's lies about his health. He then talks about a particularly jarring visit to the doctor in which the doctor suggested that he have sex just once, to see how it is before he dies. Tom then explains to Meg that he does not want his parents to know that he is aware of the state of his health, and he makes Meg swear herself to secrecy.
Tom submits that he might be acting a bit creepy. Meg, in response, says that Tom is too skinny for her. He jokingly does push-ups to compensate, but when he looks up, Meg is gone. Coral then arrives with wood for an element of their performance in the amateur night. She asks Tom if he's feeling all right, and he tells her that he is. They leave together to get ready for the show.
Scene 3
The amateur show begins. The MC tells some bad jokes, then sings a beach-themed love song. Afterwards, he introduces Coral and Tom's performance, a drama called Strangers on the Shore. Tom and Coral then perform a story about a sailor who drowned. After not being let into heaven, he wandered the earth and by chance met a young woman. The two fell in love, and when the woman chased after the man's spirit, swimming in the sea to reach him, she was turned by the gods into a mermaid. Unfortunately, she was lonely at the bottom of the sea, and the gods granted the sailor another wish out of pity. The sailor chose to be selfless, granting his lover the power to walk on land again. The woman is scared that she will not remember how to walk, but the sailor shows her how, and Tom and Coral correspondingly walk behind the stage to a bonfire on the beach. As those watching the show move over towards the grand bonfire, Vic and Harry exit the stage in a different direction.
Analysis
After the climactic breaking point of Act 3's storm, Act 4 shows the main characters of the play as they embark on the shaky and unsteady road to healing themselves. In order to do so, however, they must first stare the naked truths that haunt them in the face. Finally, as the characters do so, Gow takes care to show us how this process of reconciliation also maps to and complicates the central themes explored earlier in the play.
In Scene 1, Gwen voices explicitly and violently for the first time just how she feels about people she perceives to be lazy. This, while proximally referring to and triggered by Coral, of course also reads as a broader attack on the poor and immigrants, including Vic and Harry. Further, this outburst is placed just after Vic and Harry talk about the idyllic quality of the landscape to emphasize the difference in character between them and Gwen. Gwen is unable to find simple joys in life, while Vic and Harry are forced to search for them at every opportunity. This, of course, is because of their son's illness, which Harry then describes to Jim.
While Harry's comment to Jim that England is like "an elderly relative" certainly sheds light on how outsiders perceive Australia as a place of second chances (ironically, not unlike Gwen), his comment carries an irony that goes deeper than the theme of nationality in the play (44). Specifically, it is ironic that Harry, in talking about someone worried about health over fun, is more or less describing how Tom perceives the behavior of his parents. Tom sees through their attempts to have fun, but Harry and Vic are totally unaware of this truth. Here too, Gow intends to point out the fresh and clear cynicism of youth, as opposed to the romanticism, idealism, or doggedness of old age.
Note too in Scene 1 how powerful the anticipated death of someone young is. Talking about Tom's illness radically changes Gwen, instilling newfound respect in her for Harry and Vic and also compelling her to curb her addiction to Bex powders. She also apologizes for the very first time in the play. Talking about Tom's death also affects Jim, who is immediately sobered the topic and forgets the wrongs his wife have perpetrated against him and his daughter. Such weight being given to the death of a young one shows in the preceding acts just how sane Coral really was, and how twisted Roy really was in threatening her for it.
Scene 2 is important for the way in which it draws Coral and Tom close together, as well as for how it places distance between Tom and Meg. In the former regard, note that Coral is described once again as looking like Kim Novak by both Tom and Meg, meaning that, at the beach, she is once again back to living like her authentic self. Her growing close with Tom is also reminiscent of her connection with Rick at the hotel (solidified by the actors of Tom and Rick being the same), which thus foregrounds the centrality of uncontrolled and free youth to the characters in the play.
Regarding Meg, then, Scene 2 is notable for the way in which the action forces Tom and Meg to realize that they can never be together. When Tom tries to pressure Meg into sex, he is unwittingly acting against his own interests by forcing himself to artificially treasure his youth in the same way that his parents do. Moreover, it is notable that the material, physical aspect of sex is not something Meg is comfortable with. Just like the material comforts of life in Australia are not enough to bring Coral's son back, sex with Tom is not enough of a consolation to redeem him from his imminent death, which scares Meg off. In placing new, unbridgeable distance between Tom and Meg, Gow thus also deftly explores the theme of the material and the tensions of youth explored earlier in the play.
Finally, Scene 3's play-within-a-play is very significant for the drama's central characters. The Stranger on the Shore is ultimately a play about the emptiness of changing yourself for someone else, as well as the power and importance of tenderness and mercy, so its staging after the preceding events in the play is very significant. It implicitly scorns Gwen for her economic bravado, scorns Harry and Vic for their pretense towards Tom, and scorns Roy for forcing Coral to act like someone she isn't. Ironically however, these performative behaviors on the parts of other characters are chastised themselves through a literal performance. Performativity here, then, is framed by Gow both as something which creates unnecessary distance between people but can also be instructive and useful. This, of course, can also be taken as a wider theoretical exploration of drama itself, which puts distance between audience and actor but also teaches one to see themselves in the other.
