WE’LL see the best and  the worst of them, when composer John Shortis’ songs about our great and not so great Prime Ministers premieres at The Q next week.

In 2008 Shortis was awarded a Fellowship at the Australian Prime Ministers’ Centre (APMC) at the Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD) to research and write songs about eight  of our early PMs. This was performed, but it evolved into the perfect show for the Centenary.

“At the time,”  Shortis  says, “there were 26 PMs, so we worked out that if I wrote two songs for each, we could have one a week played on the radio throughout the year of Canberra’s Centenary.”  He engaged the noted Melbourne playwright John Romeril and since 2011, the pair have been working on “Prime Time,” a musical and theatrical look at all 27 (by now) of our Prime Ministers, and the social and historical settings that they found themselves dealing with. It appears that we’ll get to hear two musical slants on each of them in what could be a long night, though there are promising “112 years in less than 2 hours.”

Worldly Goods Choir is performing with Shortis & Simpson,  along with local actor/musicians Nick Byrne and Kate Hosking. The show is directed by Catherine Langman and designed by Imogen Keen.

“Prime Time,” at The Q, Queanbeyan, May 23-June 1. $39/$34 conc. and groups, $29 matinees. www.theq.net.au, 6285 6290