When thinking of inspiration for a new play, Wollongong City Council probably isn't the first muse that comes to mind. But if you're thinking 2008 and the infamous development corruption scandal, then the play seems already to have written itself - bribery, fraud, sex and deceit.
However a play about this scandal definitely doesn't write itself, says David Williams, whose theatre company Version 1.0 is tackling this story on stage in Wollongong. (Brave move - it's easier to talk about people behind their back, not in their lounge room.)
Called 'The Table of Knowledge', the title refers to the table outside a local kebab shop where the players in the scandal would meet.
Williams says it's quite a challenge making a play about a real-life story, especially as the materials he works with are "often very non-theatrical", such as the transcripts of the Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into the scandal.
"There is certainly a lot of effort required to shape them into something theatrical that is meaningful for an audience."
"That said however," he adds, "many of them contain quite amazing stories that you couldn't make up."
And why make it up, when there is so much inspiration in the real world? Australian audiences are seeing several shows on stage which seek to re-create real-life events and stories, rather than just be inspired by them.
The Sydney Opera House recently staged 'Can We Talk About This?' a show about freedom of speech and censorship in multicultural societies. The dancers spoke word-for-word excerpts from interviews with high-profile people such as Aayan Hirsi Ali and Salman Rushdie.
In another piece, 'Human Interest Story', the dancers deliver verbatim lines from news bulletins before they break into everyday mundane chatter ('What are you having for dinner?'). It's about the way news, even the most tragic stories, become part of our everyday lives to the point that we barely notice it.
The actors and performers in these shows often skilfully interact with the real-life audio or vision on stage in clever and witty ways.
One of choreographer Kate Champion's recent pieces had dancers acting and lip-synching to the audio recordings of people interviewed as part of a piece called 'The Age I'm In', a show about how people feel at different ages in their body.
Champion says using social research to create her pieces allows her shows to "resonate in people's life and people's true-life experiences".
She's now researching and developing a new piece about current parenting practices. Called 'Never Did Me Any Harm', it will question the kind of society being created when children aren't allowed to experience failure.
"What generation is entering the workforce, and what is the mentality that is being raised like that? How are they going to lead the world and what effect are they going to have on the world in ten years or so when they are power brokers?" asks Champion.
Whether you could make it up or not, real life is so strange it would be a shame not to reflect on it and occasionally be amused it.
