WATCH A POLITICIAN SQUIRM

Whether you love or hate watching politicians squirm in interviews, you’ll find Lyall Brooks in A Prudent Man engaging. An accomplished actor, Lyall Brooks puts on a powerful and faultless performance in Lab Kelpie’s one-man play at this year’s Brisbane Festival.

The play begins with a politician sitting in an interview chair. His stage presence is so strong you may find yourself holding your breath until he utters his first word. For the next 55 minutes, a live, unedited interview unfolds, and the ‘political’ personality he wants Australia to know him as starts to reveal cracks. His arrogant mannerisms are compensation for the fact he is just an ordinary, white, middle-class Australian who has been sheltered his whole life.

Written by award-winning Australian playwright Katy Warner, A Prudent Man is deliberate and incisive. Listen carefully and you will uncover some of the clever metaphors reflective of disturbing world events at the time the playwright wrote the script — like the body of a Syrian boy wearing a red shirt and black shoes found washed up face down on a Turkish beach two years ago.

The play will leave you feeling reflective about all sorts of matters. It also make you wonder if all politicians are like this character.

The Brisbane Festival is showcasing Australian one-man play A Prudent Man until 23 September 2017, and the festival runs until 30 September.