The Minister

The parliamentary party leader is single? Too bad – because the Home Secretary has not only a husband but a disabled child to boot. This garners sympathy for her and boosts her poll numbers. However, she is also having an affair with the Secretary of State, and he has a dark secret which the head of the Intelligence Agency knows about. The Home Secretary wants to become Chancellor, and the parliamentary party leader wants to beat her to it. The opinion pollster wants to profit from other people’s success, and the journalist needs a scoop. In this game, anyone who trusts anyone else has already lost, because if you want to play at the highest level you can’t afford loyalty. Files are sold, rumours spread, and even the most terrible tragedy can be capitalised upon. In this race for power and influence, it doesn’t matter who gets trampled underfoot. The main thing is to manoeuvre yourself into the most advantageous position possible.

In The Minister, Dirk Kurbjuweit has created a scathing morality tale featuring street-ballad-style songs, in which principles are only worth something as long as they serve your own interests, and empathy always means weakness.