The Blind Giant is Dancing

Belvoir Street Theatre

'The Blind Giant is Dancing' is set in the 1980s and the protagonists are members of the left wing of the Australian Labor Party. (Overseas readers, think British Labour Party or, to a lesser extent, USA Democratic Party.) They are as much combatants against each other and against the other factions of their own party as they are combatants against the other political parties. Ruthless, devious and even corrupt in their battle to obtain and maintain power.

The play is about thirty years old and may well reflect some elements of the Labor Party today. I imagine it is a reasonable depiction of how those elements of the party operated in those days. Lovers of the political game may well enjoy this foray into party politics but I found it tedious and heavy going.

I can enjoy the evil of politics when it done with the sort of panache that, say, Kevin Spacey brings to House of Cards but no-one in this production is as deliciously seductive.

All the shouting at one another just left me with a headache.

One for the true believers.

★★1/2