The Table of Knowledge August 30, 2011

Season extended due to demand - 4 new shows added, great seats available!

The Table of Knowledge is a powerful new theatre work based on actual events that took place in Wollongong from 2004 to 2008.
On December 5, 2006, officers of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) raided the administration building of Wollongong City Council, forcing staff to vacate their posts, sealing a floor of the building and leaving hours later with boxes of documents, files and computer hard drives. This was the first indication the community of Wollongong had of Operation Atlas, the ICAC investigation into allegations of corruption involving local developers, Councillors and former staff of Wollongong City Council.
The scandal had reverberations far beyond expectations and resulted in the sacking of the entire elected Council. ICAC exposed sexual obsessions, envelopes full of cash and a group of powerful men that met regularly outside a local kebab shop at a plastic table they called "the table of knowledge". The premiere of this new work is given increased impact by the fact it will open just a few days before Wollongong residents go to the polls to elect a new Council, with former General Manager of Wollongong City Council Rod Oxley a candidate for Lord Mayor despite ICAC having delivered findings of corrupt conduct against him.
The ICAC investigation of 2006 deeply affected the region and Merrigong felt that as an engaged and active part of the community, we had to respond. To this end, we approached the acclaimed version 1.0, to co-produce an original theatre work. The result is the frank and theatrically innovative, The Table of Knowledge, covering an account of the inquiry and its subsequent fallout with the script almost entirely provided by the actual words of the central characters as recorded in the Inquiry transcripts.
version 1.0 turns its forensic theatrical vision onto the inquiry transcripts and the media reportage of this scandal, to produce an entertaining and informative interrogation of power, corruption and good governance in contemporary Australia.