Media Mates EMERALD CITY

By WILLIAM A. HENRY III

When Australian films vaulted to world prominence a few years ago, at the heart of the action was screenwriter David Williamson, whose credits include Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously. Like many a successful artist, Williamson apparently discovered that only part of his soul was committed to artistic integrity. The rest lusted for wealth, fame, power and a sweeping view of Sydney's harbor. This confrontation with the dark side is the central theme of Emerald City, Williamson's winsomely cynical comedy of manners among the media hucksters Down Under. It is now enjoying a deft, engaging production off-Broadway.

The story brings together a gifted, high-minded screenwriter and a no- talent hustler with feckless charm and terminal greed. Guess which comes out on top? The rest of the plot is equally unsurprising: the screenwriter's sanctimonious wife, a publishing executive, abandons all her principles in pursuit of material success, and so on. What makes Emerald City striking is that Williamson has the gift he attributes to his onstage surrogate: an ability to bring characters alive. He is aided by beguilingly energetic performances from Daniel Gerroll as the screenwriter and Dan Butler as the hustler.

Although deeply personal, this work invites comparisons: with Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, Michael Frayn's Benefactors and, above all, David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, which is more animated and bitter in its glimpse of the film business but not as involving. Like Stoppard and Frayn but unlike Mamet, Williamson has the daring to write about artists who are actually artistic -- sincere and good at what they do. His fable ends ambiguously for all parties, but with a whiff of genuine tragedy. -- W.A.H. III