How To Rule The World
Image: Michelle Lim Davidson, Nakkiah Lui & Anthony Taufa. Photo: Rene Vaile
If this play is written in the same humorous vein as Black Comedy, the sketch comedy program that screened on ABC television, they’ll be rolling in the aisles with laughter.
This is not Lui’s first play. She already has half a dozen under her belt.
Lui’s talent is undeniable, and she has won a swathe of awards, including the Nick Enright Prize for playwriting in the 2018 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards for Black Is The New White.
In this latest production, a political satire (a timely production indeed with upcoming State and Federal elections), Lui aims to tackle “the Australian myths of multiculturalism and a ‘fair go’”.
When an Aboriginal (Vic, played by Nakkiah Lui), an Asian (Zaza played by Michelle Lim Davidson) and an Islander (Chris played by Anthony Taufa) walk into a bar, this becomes the catalyst for what is billed as “stinging satire.” Fuelled by alcohol, the three hatch a plan to take over Parliament House, and then the world.
Director Paige Rattray says the play enables us “to examine our current power structures through humour,” adding that this leads to “an incredibly deep examination into who is allowed to function and succeed in that system.”
Lui says this was the play she had to write.
“So often in Australia, political satire is the realm of White men: Whiteness gets to be invisible. The rest of us non-Whites are just politics. I wanted to satirise politics and powerful, rich white men.”
Until Mar 30. Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney. $60-$99+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.sydneytheatre.com.au
By Irina Dunn
