WHEN it comes to depicting bad parenting on stage, nobody does it quite so well as playwright David Williamson in “Emerald City”.

A new production of the 1987 play directed by Anne Somes is on  at the ACT Hub in Kingston this week, and Somes tells us to expect some very politically incorrect ideas.

Some of that was on stage at a media event on Wednesday morning, June 8, as husband and wife – the writer Colin and his publisher spouse Kate – haggled over how to broach matters such as  sexual preferences with  their children, to say nothing of how to describe First Nations authors. It’s disturbingly up to date.

Isaac Reilly, who plays Colin,  said he had a monumental task because his fiercely articulate and opinionated character character, one very like Williamson himself, is on stage most of the time.

As Kate, Victoria Dixon is something of  a devil’s advocate as the pair manoeuvre their ways in the society of the glittering, brash Emerald City, (Sydney, that is) so very different from the literate Melbourne they are used to.

“Emerald City” has been a success everywhere around the world except London, where critics snorted at Kate’s description of the southern metropolis as “sophisticated”.

But with a sharp script, wall-to-wall laughs  and a nostalgic 1980s set, it’s likely to be a hit for the fledgling ACT Hub.

“Emerald City,” ACT Hub, 14 Spinifex Street Kingston, until June 25.