Rhys Muldoon, Hamish Michael, Anthony Taufa, Nakkiah Lui and Michelle Lim Davidson in Sydney Theatre Company’s production of How to Rule the World. Photo: Prudence Upton
Sick of the “Canberra bubble”? And the people who use, and misuse, the term? Well, here comes Nakkiah Lui to burst that bubble and tell it like she sees it. And in her latest satire, she also shares her tips on how to succeed in politics today. It’s a whole lot sharper and funnier (but sadly no less believable) than anything you’ll hear from an official Canberra soapbox.
Imagine: An Aboriginal, an Islander and an Asian walk into a bar… and come out with an idea to rule the world (or, in this case, get into the Australian Senate). After all, if Fraser Anning can get himself elected on a mere 19 votes, what’s to stop one of these three? Especially when their disillusionment has been fuelled by the latest sop to the extreme right, the proposed Sovereign Territory Bill that supposedly entrenches “Australian values” (no non-English speaking people here, thanks very much!)
These three are educated and opinionated enough, but there’s an image problem. None of them is a white Australian male. How can Vic (Lui herself), a party girl, Chris (Anthony Taufa), a Tongan who looks more like a bouncer than a statesman, and Zaza (Michelle Lim Davidson), an accountant with a private income – or more pertinently in this scenario, Korean – hope to garner a vote? A little more Bolivian marching power (delivered by Gareth Davies as a cynical dealer, in one of many beautiful cameo roles) provides the answer: a Stooge! The hunt is on for an actor (yes, it’s been done before, think Ronald Reagan), with no past (trickier), who can deliver the trio’s message and look the part.
Michelle Lim Davidson, Anthony Taufa and Nakkiah Lui. Photo: Prudence Upton
Thus is the Perfect White Man created. A long-haired, sandal-wearing mediocre thesp is hilariously transformed into the very picture of a suited, booted and coiffed pollie and christened Tom Ryan. And, with an election platform that promises nothing, Ryan is elected to the Senate. I thought of the inestimable Cleaver Greene (Richard Roxburgh’s Rake) at this point but How to Rule the World has a lot more to say, and laugh or cry about.
Lui has a fine ear for dialogue, one-liners and the type of empty rhetoric and promises bandied about in Canberra. She hears it all and punches it back. There are some sharp digs at big business as well (I particularly loved the reference to one large accounting firm known more for its ads during horse racing than for its preferred corporate image). Marg Howell’s set – Canberra’s corridors of power – is suitably beige and bland.
Rhys Muldoon plays your typical Aussie PM to perfection. Photo: Prudence Upton
And so Tom, flushed with nerves and success, has an audience with the PM, played to perfection by Rhys Muldoon. These are some of the best scenes, with the PM pontificating on what it is to be a man, rule like a man, behave like a man, be a man. Muldoon is terrifically smug and arrogant in his bespoke suit, drinking his 200-year-old whisky and carrying on like, well, an alpha male in power. There is a token (voiceless) woman to do his bidding naturally (Vanessa Downing takes on this role, along with other female characters, with assurance and aplomb).
Of course the PM is not at all happy that Tom (who’s being fed his lines courtesy of his handlers Vic, Zaza and Chris, who are operating from the ladies toilet near the PM’s office (“Don’t worry, it’s never used”) will vote against the Sovereign Territory Bill. Tom will not change his mind, not be bribed, not be seduced by power. Or will he?
In the hands of director Paige Rattray, the play is fast-paced but the second act, still very good, is not as tightly scripted as the first. It begins with how to deal with Tom, and how to clean up the mess our Canberra millennials have created. There are wonderfully farcical moments (some involving a machete, a wheelchair-bound grandmother and gun-toting pollie, for example) as well as an ongoing poo joke, which I found distracting rather than hilarious, and what’s not to laugh at when mediocre white men are being sent up for their foibles? As I’ve said before, about other satires on Australian politics, present-day Canberra is the gift that keeps on giving.
On a more serious level, Liu also has some very specific – and salient – points to make about the distribution of power in this land, and what could be done to change things for the better. What How to Rule the World has to say on the present woeful state of Australian politics is entirely relevant, so is the message about Indigenous rights and a call for treaty. But Lui’s message goes further than those who hold the power. Others are slack here; everyone can hold up the mirror. Not just those who condone passive racism, but the people – including the Aboriginals, Islanders and Asians – who conform to the stereotypes they are seen as. We all need to step up.
It’s a provocative, engaging, sophisticated and important play. And very funny!
Nakkiah Lui’s How to Rule the World, a Sydney Theatre Company production, plays at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, until March 30.
