As they share a coffee one morning, four dreamers from very different backgrounds realise they have more in common than they first thought.
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Together they orchestrate a stunt with the motive of annoying the government by going viral on social media.
You really have to make your own mind up on issues and not listen to the thought bubbles that attract you to political parties.
- Playwright Graeme Freedman
Body Politic delves into the lives of business owners in the small town of Cobargo who have all been diagnosed with what playwright Graeme Freedman describes as politic related stress disorder, and suffer from nightmares after dosing themselves with sleeping pills.
It is Freedman's first stage play, and he said the work was intended to be shown between this year's March state election and the soon to be announced federal election, bringing together the highly topical themes of refugees, governance and the environment.
"We were so annoyed by all these issues we needed something that would turn them into people," the 63-year-old said.
"I couldn't sleep until I had finished writing it."
One of Freedman's characters Lena escaped the Taliban government in Afghanistan, and arrived in Australian waters on the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa after being rescued along with 400 other asylum seekers from a 20-metre wooden fishing boat.
"She still thinks about the kids who never made it out of war zones," Freedman said.
"Lena's story makes everyone cry."
The play is set in the small town at a time when the government is planning the construction of a coal fired power station in the nearby coastal town of Bermagui.
"The message we're trying to get out of it is that you really have to make your own mind up on issues and not listen to the thought bubbles that attract you to political parties, which lets them win," Freedman said.
"It's a warning to the major parties that politics is for the people and not for themselves."
The philosophy of science graduate and defence policy writer understands the the measures governments both do and do not do when it comes to decision-making.
"How to solve the problems of big data and privacy is something I'm interested in," he said.
"Facebook is the death knell of privacy, but it's how you deal with it. It's a terribly uncontrolled beast.
"There are certain questions in ethics that are extremely difficult for people to answer."
With a career in technical writing Freedman has penned the play in Socratic dialogue, and has enjoyed his journey into creative writing.
"I quite often sit and as I'm writing I cry," he said.
"If you don't then you're not putting everything into it. "
- Body Politic will be showing on April 5, April 6, April 12 and April 13 at Cobargo School of Arts Hall. Tickets cost $25 for adults and $10 for teenagers. A preview will be held on April 4 for $20 for adults and $10 for teenagers.