The air shimmers over baking hills and the bush is tinder dry. From the stereo thunders the voice of Adolf Hitler. Karl, the confused 'little Jewish Nazi in a large flat cap' is riven by the terrors of his past: he saw Vienna burning, limbs stuck in trees, the muzzle flashes of submachine guns. Later, in Australia, he stood immobile while mental-hospital attendants lifted screaming patients from their beds by the balls. His wife has left him and Cynthia, his lover, is having an affair with the Reverend Christian Cleaver. He must kill him! Mupp, his teddy bear, tries to reason with him, but his 'Mars in Scorpio' - consuming violence and passion - is driving him to murder. Mars in Scorpio is a disturbing immigrant's story that shows how, even in Australia, Nazi and Jew continue to wrestle in displaced souls. The author's radio play of the same title won the prestigious Pater and Ian Reed awards and was broadcast by the ABC.
