I have to admit I had a vested interested in seeing playwright Nakkiah Lui's 'How to Rule the World' - an edgy new comedy deftly tackling race and power in Canberra.
For me, as a brown woman often swimming against a sea of media white, seeing the play was a moment of catharsis as the multi-talented writer, comedian and playwright Lui dispenses some insider information on world-ruling, or at least offers some respite from drowning in the tide.
I wasn't disappointed. The play offered laughs and relief to anyone who has felt thwarted by forces larger than them. The play begins with the lamentations of three brilliant young friends chafing at the sidelines of their chosen professions and plotting how to get their revenge at the systems that have marginalised them.
Indigenous journalist Vic (Nakkiah Lui) is relegated to crunching out listicles, Korean lawyer Zaza (Michelle Lim Davidson) is told she is not 'assertive' enough by her boss in her 'Jams with James' feedback sessions and queer Tongan politico Chris (Anthony Taufa) doesn't stand a chance at fulfilling his ambitions of high office, after being told he doesn't have the 'right look' to be a political candidate.
The friends decide to avenge themselves by seeking to thwart a new hardline immigration bill, ripped straight from the headlines. They hire out-of-work actor Lewis Lewis (Hamish Michael) and in a Pygmalion style makeover, transform him into Senate candidate Tommy Ryan.
Lewis is the perfect generic white man to be a puppet for the trio's radical agenda. With the help of some skillful voice training, bland political cliches 'Ryan is 'Tryan for change' and the aid of some men's rights activist inspired song and dance training: 'Stick your chest out. Be a man! Reclaim your inborn power' , the play is a pointed critique of how tied our cultural constructions of power have been to the performance of a deep-voiced, suited, Alpha white male - competency optional.
Unfortunately for the operatives, their Eliza Doolittle quickly acquires a mind of his own, stepping confidently into his white privilege and jettisoning his creators. Left mottled by their own in-fighting: 'the left always eat their own', the group's Indigenous, migrant and queer agendas clash and the resultant political double dealing compromise the idealistic hopes of the trio. The play poses important questions of how power corrupts and what status quo disruptors do when the balance tips in their favour.
The left is not spared, with the trio's millennial angst and the complexities and contradictions of their social justice motivations comically satirised in surreal scenes of drug taking and clubbing.
But Lui's most savage indictments are reserved for systematic racism that force the protaganists into such contortions. From the gravelly voiced villainous leader played brilliantly by Rhys Muldoon, to the sometimes long but nevertheless powerful monologues to audience, there is no place to hide for the white, well-heeled middle class Opera House audience.
The play ends on a hopeful note. From the ashes of the group's Machiavellian maneuverings (after some redemptive praying to Oprah) - the play offers a promise of a different world - where power looks and feels more like the diverse world around us.
How to Rule the World runs at Sydney Theatre Company until March 30.
