Third-year theatre/media students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst will stage their production of a new play, Reductio Ad, which premieres at the Ponton Theatre on Wednesday 23 May. Reductio Ad was written by award-winning screenwriter and playwright Mr Ray Harding, and is directed by Ms Kate Smith, both lecturers at the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst. Reductio Ad is a black comedy that tracks one day in the life of a dysfunctional family living in the year 2027 as the last survivors on Earth, or so they think. Ms Smith said, "This play explores our reliance on technology, celebrity, and religion to solve life's inexplicable mysteries in the face of annihilation. Ray Harding has created a landscape inhabited by a barely functioning family - Bazza, Beryl and their four adult children - who cling to their sanity as they seek refuge inside an abandoned detention centre as they seemingly ignore the harsh reality of their existence in a world destroyed by the impacts of climate change. This comic and at times paradoxical portrait of Australian society in the face of massive global change is off-beat and deeply provocative.”