Good news today from Australian Plays. They are going to publish 'A Hole in the Ground,' a play I co-wrote with my friend, Joanne Ryan, who is now the Federal Member for Lalor. ‘A Hole In The Ground’ was our first play, and we were lucky - we sent an early draft as an unsolicited script to the MTC in 2000 where it was picked up by dramaturg Peter Matheson who mentored us until it was staged in 2004 at La Mama Courthouse and Wyndham Cultural Centre, directed by David Myles. The project had an interesting genesis - it grew out of our experiences working with our community on the Werribee No Toxic Dump campaign in the late 1990s. The community fought the Kennett State Government and CSR – a real David and two Goliaths battle. Against all the odds, the community won. It was such a significant community activism campaign that it is still taught at universities today. We are now in a time of great protest movements - #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Lock The Gate. Campaigning actually changes people, changes community and society, and that is what our play explores, illuminates and argues.
