You know when you are a person of influence in Australia when the invitation comes to appear on the ABC's Monday night news panel show Q&A;.
"Being an Aboriginal woman who has an opinion on things, I have fallen into being a political social commentator at times," says playwright Nakkiah Lui, who sat alongside Clive Palmer and federal MPs Jason Clare and Christian Porter on Q&A; earlier this year. "The idea of opinion as power is something that really interests me."
![Playwight Nakkiah Lui says she has fallen into being a political social commentator at times.](/web/20160922103336im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/k/a/a/u/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grkakr.png/1474344788400.jpg)
Lui's new short play, The Green Room, draws directly on her experience of being a panellist on a show that dissects the news, and regularly becomes news.
"I find it so fascinating watching Q&A; and the way it affects people's lives," Lui says. "I wanted to look at what it is to be on that show and how the show itself works."
In The Green Room, one of five 20-minute plays by women commissioned by the Sydney Theatre Company for its new production Power Plays, Lui invents the story of a left-wing activist making her panel show debut.
"I'm a massive fan of Veep [the American political comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus] and films like Network. I wanted to take a satirical look at what is the behind the scenes of shows like Q&A;. What The Green Room is asking is, if we are all just cogs in a media machine, then where is the machine going and what is it doing?"
Lui's experience as a panellist is woven into the fabric of the story, she says.
"One of the biggest things I've learned from doing shows like Q&A; – and I'm still learning – is not apologising for what you have to say. I don't think I'm the smartest person in the room by any means but if I'm thinking in a particular way about something, there must be lots of other people who are thinking the same."
Power Plays brings together established playwrights Lui, Melissa Bubnic and Hannie Rayson with STC debutants Debra Thomas (whose first full-length play The Man's Bitch won the 2014 Patrick White Playwrights' Award) and Michele Lee, recently awarded the Queensland Premier's Drama Award for her play Rice (which plays at Griffin next year). Each writer explores aspects of influence, power and entitlement in a highly individual way, says the production's director Paige Rattray.
"It's interesting to see playwrights with different experiences and backgrounds and how completely differently they see power in the world," Rattray says. "And it's thrilling to see five actors playing so many different roles over the course of an evening – with wigs! I'm hoping the audience will find it thought provoking but also fun. It's been a hoot for us."
Lui, who is one of the most in-demand voices in theatre with a main stage production in three cities in the next 12 months, sees Power Plays as, "a friendly reminder to audiences and theatre companies that there is a lot of female talent out there".
"They are all really meaty works," Lui says. "They all pack a punch. None of them waste any time. I think a good play is a short play and this is taking it to the extreme."
Power Plays opens at the Sydney Theatre Company, September 22 to October 22.