Valentine tries political realm

Australian playwright Alana Valentine, who wrote the emotional Run Rabbit Run and the hard-hitting Parramatta Girls, is returning with a new work to open at the Street Theatre next month.

Australian playwright Alana Valentine, who wrote the emotional Run Rabbit Run and the hard-hitting Parramatta Girls, is returning with a new work to open at the Street Theatre next month.

The Street Theatre commissioned Valentine’s play, MP, which looks into the world of politics.

The piece is poignant at a time when Federal Politics has been through a dramatic few years, including last year’s Federal Election that resulted in a minority government. As Julia Gillard faces the biggest challenge of any modern day Labor Prime Minister, this play comes at just the right time.

For lovers of The West Wing on television, things just got much more live and much more local.

The play is primarily about women in politics and women in power, and emerges as a fascinating series of moral dilemmas, tactics and healthy corrective to anti-Canberra stereotypes and public cynicism.

The show stars theatrical legend Geraldine Turner as Ava, a local Member tired of the shifting sands of party politics and ready to make real change. The question is, can she play politics her own way or will she be swallowed whole by the snake pit of uneasy coalitions, public betrayals and knife-edge decisions that is Australian politics?

This a fictional version of the inside scoop based on interviews with Annabel Crabb, Laura Tingle, Virginia Haussegger and a whole gaggle of public servants.

Canberra produces plenty of drama each year inside Parliament House, now it’s time for a little more!

The show opens at the Street Theatre on October 1. Details: 6247 1223 or www.thestreet.org.au.