MP.

$5.40 – $15.00

Ava Turner, MP., hires a new assistant called Nadia just in time. On the same morning two of Ava's constituents walk into her office with a harrowing tale of incompetence, neglect and tragedy involving their paraplegic, brain-injured daughter. As Ava swings into action to gain the couple justice, Nerida learns fast about how the parliamentary process works and quickly comes into conflict with Ava's strategies for success. Dodging the media and the public service, the ire of her own party and the impatience of her constituents, Ava crosses the floor of Parliament in an act of desperate defiance. But just when it seems like all her good intentions have come to nothing, Ava reveals that she was more in control than anyone realised.

MP. is a timely and provocative look at the experience of female politicians working as elected representatives in our parliaments. Based on extensive interviews with federal politicians as diverse as Julie Bishop, Tanya Plibersek, Judy Hopwood, Kay Hull, Kate Lundy and Vicki Dunne, the play looks behind the scenes at how they juggle their relationships with party colleagues, journalists, public servants, electoral constituents, staff advisors, friends and family members. What emerges is a fascinating series of moral dilemmas faced by those trying to bring about change and those trying to stop them, those who know how to play the game and those who are simply ambitious for their own advancement. This is a fictional version of the inside scoop based on interviews with journalists Annabel Crabb, Laura Tingle, Virginia Haussegger and a whole gaggle of public servants MP. goes where no current affairs show or panel discussion dares to tread - deep into the messy emotional life of an MP. working in the snake pit of uneasy coalitions, public betrayals and knife-edge decisions that is Australian politics.

APT