Martin, a journalist, has fallen under the spell of the Café Scheherazade and its Jewish refugee clientele and is writing a book about them, haunting the back room where an inner circle congregates. Martin is anxious to finish the work, but the others do not fully trust him—the outsider—and he senses that there is a great deal more behind their light-hearted quarrelling that he can’t get at. Martin’s book is finally published, but under the celebration is shot through with doubt: Who will listen? Did they tell the truth? Do their stories matter? Is death their end?
As the corpse of Jiang Qing, or Madame Mao, swings in the cell where she has hanged herself, we journey retrospectively through the events of a life that came to this undignified end. Rejected by her father when she was a child, Jiang Qing sees a chance to prove herself when Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Revolutionaries, throws his wife into an asylum and takes a fancy to her. As Mao’s policies fail and he descends into a life of debauchery, Jiang Qing takes control, using the brutality of the Cultural Revolution to take revenge on those that she feels have betrayed her. In the end, Mao also rejects her and she is sent to prison where she takes her own life, in the belief that posterity will eventually vindicate her name.
The play explores the public and private lives of the inimitable Dame Nellie Melba. At her final concert, the great diva is haunted by critical moments from her past. The play uses music from Melba's repertoire to bring these moments alive as two Melba's - the confident, determined careerist and the private doubting woman • confront each other recalling highlights from a life full of triumph, scandal and pain.
Japan's Emperor Hirohito lies on his deathbed, plagued by morphine-induced dreams of his past. Hirohito was the Japanese Emperor at the time of the Second World War and Radic uses this mis-en-scene to construct a reflection upon Japanese-Australian relations during this turbulent period.