The Truth Game Trailer

Written by Simon Cunliffe
Directer by Lara Macgregor

Frank Stone is "the last great snorting warhorse of print journalism''. Arrogant, irascible and bombastic, he is also a charismatic and brilliant operator. Acting editor of daily newspaper The Advocate, recently taken over by an international media company, he is an old-style print warrior for "truth'', grammatical correctness and the watchdog role of "the Fourth Estate'' -- who finds himself at odds with his paper's corporate masters.

While all around him marketers, managers and disciples of the new digital media -- Twitter, Facebook, YouTube -- peddle their pervasive dedication to focus groups, loose-lipped trivia and the bottom line, Frank must reconcile the colliding demands of principle and personal ambition, while confronting the demons of his messy past.

As the new owners begin to exert their influence in the newsroom, Frank finds himself engaged in a deadly battle for the very "soul'' of news. Can he come up with a story to save his career and keep the "barbarians'' at bay? How far will he go to get the top job? And what might it cost him?

Studded with gallows humour and the cynical but witty wordplay beloved of traditional newsrooms, The Truth Game is, nonetheless, a hard-edged contemporary drama. It freeze-frames the crises of the age, along with Frank's complicated, entwined personal and professional lives, into one night's production of The Advocate -- traversing universal themes of ambition, loyalty, love and betrayal along the way.

7 - 29 October 2011

Category:

Entertainment

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