'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing’, observed Edmund Burke. The courage of ordinary people in the face
of economic upheaval or public corruption is at the heart of Katherine
Thomson’s writing. In Navigating we meat Bea, an embattled woman who
finds herself in possession of damaging documentary evidence. The seaside
town in which her and her sister live is riddled with corruption and buried
secrets, as the forces once responsible for a holiday tragedy now conspire to
win the contract for a private prison. Unwilling to recognise the fear and deceit
around her, Bea confides in one hollow friend after another. Her small world
crumbles. Silence, she discovers, is as damaging as speech. A dense,
powerful, witty human drama which goes to the heart of small-town politics
and finds sources of unexpected wisdom.
Published by Currency Press 1997
Premiered at Melbourne Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre
Company in 1997, Sydney Theatre Company 1998
Board of Studies NSW, Higher School Certificate, English Syllabus (01-03)