Housework at Dunstan Playhouse

Kelly Sheppard, a naive but excited junior staffer in the Electorate Office of Ruth Mandour, a first-term Member of Parliament, unexpectedly gets the chance to travel to Canberra with the passionate MP she idolises and Ruth’s brilliant-but­ exhausted Chief of Staff, Anna Cooper. Anna’s juggling Ruth’s new policy launch, a husband who can’t deal with their kid in her absence and the type of muffins the Member requires for a meeting while Kelly’s over the moon to get behind the scenes at Parliament and to watch her hero in action. But getting what you want in the nation’s capital requires some fancy footwork. What they all experience in that week makes them question their ambitions, their ideals and the value of democracy itself.

A whip smart, gaspingly funny and incisive deep dive into the corridors of power with shades of Veep, The Thick of It and The Hollowmen, celebrated South Australian playwright Emily Steel (Euphoria) blows open the doors of Parliament House to unlock some devilish and dangerous truths in this bold new black comedy.

Two of Australia’s greatest comic actresses take to the stage in this thrilling world premiere – acclaimed actress and comedian Susie Youssef, star of The Project, Deadloch and The Appleton Ladies Potato Race assumes the ministerial mantle while Emily Taheny, she of a thousand characters from Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell, is set to juggle a plethora of political hot potatoes as Anna, with direction from State Theatre Company South Australia Artistic Associate Shannon Rush (Cathedral, The Puzzle).

Sex scandals, betrayals, culture wars, the price of power, motherhood and Machiavellian manipulation – it’s all in a day’s work inside the House.