SEASON ONE '08

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS
A PALPABLE HITS PRODUCTION

THE CHINA INCIDENT

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY PETER HOUGHTON
PERFORMED BY ANNE BROWNING
LIGHTING & SOUND DESIGNER DAVID FRANZKE

In 2007, Malthouse Theatre audiences couldn’t get enough of The Pitch - a breakneck ride through the dream factory of Hollywood. In 2008, the dynamic duo of Anne Browning and Peter Houghton returned with their take on the only arena more dramatic than tinseltown - Politics.

In her small, yet secure high-rise office, Bea Pontifec could be anywhere. Thanks to the spread of global communication, she is everywhere. Prowling the room like a power-suited spider, she juggles despots, dignitaries and diplomatic affairs in tandem with a drug-addled son, a new-age daughter and a two-timing partner.

The world at large patches in to seek her advice on a tense cauldron of upheaval involving half a dozen nations, and this PR consultant will be damned if she’s going to let anything, or anyone, upset her carefully woven world; not the African Dictator, the US President, her ex-lover, or the bridesmaid at her daughter’s alternative wedding… After all, it’s all about image, darling. But all it takes is one torn thread for the whole web to collapse…

Following its premiere season for La Mama, The China Incident was presented by Malthouse Theatre as part of the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.