A Prudent Man was the Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival. It is written and directed by Melbourne-based Katy Warner, who has accumulated a list of awards and plays presented in New Zealand, Edinburgh and across Australia. The harassing monologue has been produced by Lab Kelpie, a theatre company who select and commission Australian playwrights, like Katy, who challenge the audience with the consequences of power, relationships and politics.
Lyall Brooks is the Prudent Man in this hour-long political monologue with a very dark undercurrent. He presents as an arrogant misogynist in an expensive suit espousing familiar political quotes. He sits in the spotlight, as if being interviewed, or perhaps he is under interrogation…
Lyall is the ultimate politician, a hideous conglomeration of every Aussie Prime minister or member of the cabinet. With the mannerisms of many a known face and a smattering of familiar and influential quotes from Australian politics, he encapsulates the prudent men and women of our dark political past, present and future: such as Hanson, Abbot, Hawke and Turnbull with a hefty wedge of the renowned QLD Premier Bjelke-Petersen.
Initially stuttering and flustered, the unnamed politician begins his address to the audience by describing his daily routines, carefully designed to meet the needs of his position of power. Initially, he appears to be the ultimate Aussie success story, coming from a working-class background with a tough father and a desire to prove his own worth and to make a difference. As his confidence grows he commands the stage, vehemently espousing how he worked hard to reach the top so that he could make a real change in an unfair World.
Despite his bluster, he bumbles and repeats phrases in an attempt to hide a sinister secret. The audience senses a foreboding change in the character whilst he mentions a “minor discrepancy” during his daily walk, hidden amongst his claims of the personal sacrifices he makes for “the people.” Gradually the character becomes more lapse as his confidence and pomposity swells, dropping hints of violence and abuse in his speech, surmounting in a need to make “difficult choices for the common good.” He claims to be the victim of his position and circumstance. Yet, whilst protesting his innocence and disguising his guilt, he lets slip about a horrific incidence, as a consequence of his “closed doors” immigration policy. The speech ends with the hint of a heinous act caused by a prudent man attempting to conceal and suppress the truth.
It is a stunning and disturbing monologue from Lyall Brooks, portraying a hideous, yet plausible character, moulded through prudence, policies and power.
By Dr Gemma Regan
A Prudent Man by Katy Warner
Lab Kelpie presentation
QUT Gardens Theatre
May 11-12, 2018