Rats in the ranks

Seasoned theatre director Wayne Harrison rushes Stainless Steel Rat to the Sydney stage this month. The Ron Elisha-penned play has beaten several big-budget Hollywood productions to the punch in offering a dramatic reading of the life story of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

“[The play] was sent to me in February, and as soon as I read it I felt compelled to act. If we waited too long, it’d get run over by any number of other projects. I know there are at least four film projects in the offing, and I’m sure somebody’s working on WikiLeaks: The Musical as we speak,” Harrison said, perhaps only half-jokingly.

Harrison was so confident of the play’s strength, he funded the production himself to get the ball rolling.

“If you put it into the normal theatre processes, it can take a long time to get to the stage. That process of consideration, programming and advertising can take 12 – 18 months. I thought, let’s just go for it, let’s do it and see what happens!”

Actor Darren Weller plays Assange (complete with bleached-white hair), leading a cast of actors taking on rather intimidating roles, from Prime Minister Julia Gillard to US President Barack Obama.

“I didn’t want it to be a show about impersonations. Valerie Bader has played Julia Gillard in The Wharf Revue, so there’s a touch of satire to some of these performances, but with serious intent,” Harrison said.

“And Darren’s psyching himself up to play this divisive figure — either you consider him to be a bogan with a modem or one of the greatest revolutionaries of this century. He is the authority on Julian now.”

Assange’s divisiveness is the very crux of Stainless Steel Rat, a play which doesn’t pretend to offer some previously untold truth about the man, but instead looks at the controversy surrounding his actions.

“You just have to Google his name and you’ll get thousands and thousands of articles claiming to tell the truth about him. Ron’s play is about the nature of truth in this day and age — that truth can be a very fluid thing in the media and on the internet.

“It’s a play that tries to get close to him, but also posits the theory that truth is elusive.”

info: Stainless Steel Rat, York Theatre, Seymour Centre until July 17. Tickets through Ticketmaster.