Ben Chifley is considered to be one of Australia’s best-loved Prime Ministers. His life story, from train driver to Prime Minister, via the union movement is well documented. Featuring Tony Barry as Chifley, Bob Ellis and Robin McLachlan's biographical monologue takes the audience on a historical journey that remembers his childhood and his regrets and achievements as Prime Minister.

It is late afternoon of June 9, 1951 and Chifley returns to his home in Bathurst to write a speech that he will deliver the following day at the ALP Conference in Sydney. Having led his party to defeat at the polls two months earlier, it is a time of personal and political challenge for the Labor leader. The dreams Chifley had for post-war Australia lie shattered amongst his failing health.

A Local Man was initially presented at the Ponton Theatre in Bathurst in 2004. It has since been intermittently performed at a variety of venues throughout Australia in a production that has been specifically designed for touring.

Bill Blakie’s direction is generally well paced offering the audience an opportunity to absorb the historical anecdotes witty one liners, that is only interrupted by phone calls between Operator Edna, party officials, his wife Elizabeth, and ‘Blue Hills’ on the wireless.

For any performer, a two-act monologue of this length can be a complex task. At this performance, Tony Barry handled the subject matter with aplomb, portraying a proud, quietly confident man who never forgot where he came from.

Karl Shead’s set intimately recreates a montage of the Chifley home. A series of projected images offers a visual recollection of his life and times. Jason Bovaird’s lighting design was effective but basic.

The musical soundscape, while never intrusive, evoked memories of the past with an interplay of popular song, stirring marches and the hymn ‘Thaxted’, giving sense that Chifley’s mind was never entirely at ease.

While A Local Man is an enjoyable production, it never sets out to be anything other than that, providing a potted history lesson for some and a melancholy journey into the past for others.