Comfort zone | Darren Brealey

The Arts Minister's coming and the media's on their way, but still there's not enough balloons for the launch of next year's theatre season! In the upstairs office of a small inner city theatre an ugly battle for ultimate power is in full swing. The Artistic Director, the Yes-man, the writer and God forbid, even the cleaning lady are slamming doors and opening windows in this fast paced, action-packed tour de farce that takes a knife to this incestuous theatre industry. Comfort Zone tells the story of a woman with more power than she deserves, whose lost touch with the reality of the industry she claims to have single-handedly created. Deirdre James is a protagonist clinging to the last bastion of power (let alone integrity) and in between programming her friend's work and shagging the Art's Minister's PA, she flaunts herself with an air of superiority wrapped round a Greenroom Award. This is a woman who can make or break the drug and alcohol addictions of many aspiring playwrights. Comfort Zone was first performed at The Bedford Hotel, Melbourne, on 28 September 2005.