Packer and Sons (Paperback)

James Packer believes you want to be him. 'I recognise that the vast majority of people would swap places with me and I wouldn't swap places with with anyone.' Is he right?

This is the origin story of the Packer prince told over three generations of tycoons who each battle to inherit their gargantuan birthright and drag it into a new era. Packer & Sons is about the family who told Australia how to think, how to relax, how to be - and the knowledge that was passed from father to son - wisdom, acumen, politics. But also, how to forge your body-armour.

Tommy Murphy (Mark Colvin's Kidney, Strangers in Between, Gwen in Purgatory and Holding the Man) is his generation's great theatre chronicler of the mess that is contemporary Australia. His writing covers vast terrain - the nature of power, who owns the truth, how our society shifts its plate tectonics. Packer & Sons is also a play of intense detail, and the quiet moments when powerful men pass lore to tomorrow's kings.

This landmark theatrical event takes aim at patriarchal power, the catastrophe of entitlement and the greed that pervades Australian life.

TOMMY MURPHY is a playwright and screenwriter. Murphy wrote and was an associate producer on the feature film Holding the Man (Goalpost Films) directed by Neil Armfield which premiered at the 2015 Sydney Film Festival. Murphy's long association with Tim Conigrave's memoir Holding the Man began with his 2006 stage adaptation for Griffin Theatre Company. This very successful production returned in 2007 to Griffin, then onto the Sydney Opera House, Company B Belvoir, Brisbane Powerhouse and Melbourne Theatre Company presentations. There have been separate productions on the West End (Trafalgar Studios), San Francisco, Auckland and Los Angeles. Murphy's adaptation won the NSW Premier's Literary Award and Australian Writers' Guild award for Best Play. Murphy's other screenwriting credits include writing for the award winning television series Devil's Playground (Matchbox Pictures/ Foxtel), Offspring, and Spirited (both for Southern Star Entertainment). Murphy's other stage works include: Peter Pan (Belvoir Street, including Broadway presentation at New Victory Theatre); Gwen in Purgatory (Belvoir Street and La Boite, directed by Neil Armfield); Saturn's Return (Sydney Theatre Company); Blood Wedding (Adaptation of Lorca's play for Royal and Derngate Northampton Theatre, UK); Strangers in Between (Griffin, Winner NSW Premier's Award); and Troy's House (ATYP). His new play Mark Colvin's Kidney premiered at Belvoir Street in February, 2017. Murphy is currently developing plays for the Sydney Theatre Company, writing episodes of new dramas for Goalpost Pictures and Matchbox Pictures (both for Foxtel) and he has created a new television series for Goalpost Pictures and SBS.