Often cited as the funniest play ever written, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off is a three-act sex farce. In Act One, the theatre troupe presents the comedy. In Act Two, the staging is reversed, so the audience sees the backstage shenanigans, feuds, rivalries, jealousies and petty failings of the cast as the play goes on. In Act Three, the backstage foibles hilariously ruin the front of house action.

Recent events bear striking similarities to this script, perhaps because so much of our ‘news’ seems now to be stage-managed. First you get the Show, which is the preferred narrative of the powers-that-be. A little later, sometimes much later, comes the Reveal, as reality leaks out to dissolve and undermine the earlier tale. Then comes the Climax, Act Three, yet to play out in the following ‘shows’ I would nominate: the two-year-old Brittany Higgins saga, the US’s long-running Donald Trump Show, and, although it’s early days yet, the newcomer, the Voice.

Australia seems riveted by Act Two of the Brittany Higgins soap opera, judging from the deluge of coverage after an unexpected text messages leak showed what was really going on behind the scenes in Act One, which you might call the All Liberals are Bastards Act. After an initial narrative of a raped young woman ignored and unsupported by a hard-hearted conservative government, the Wronged Woman emerges as a scheming and self-serving Destroyer of Prime Minister Morrison (‘He’s about to be f…ked over… We’ve got him.’), her boyfriend is exposed as a partisan String-Puller loving their moments of fame (‘We exude power’), the Crusading Journalist stands revealed as a partisan Feminist Activist, and colluding politicians such as Katy Gallagher prove only too happy to, shall we say, economise with the truth in parliament, the better to weaponise an evidence-light, she-said-he-said political hit job. No wonder the nation is gripped. It’s a whodunnit as well, with the provenance but not the legitimacy of the leaked text messages remaining a mystery.

The bodies and careers are mounting up in this saga, however, (Bruce Lehrmann, Fiona Brown, perhaps the Morrison government and, yet to be determined, Gallagher) for it is no comedy. The recent footage of Higgins entering parliament that fateful night is remarkable for the lightness of her step and carriage, in dour contrast to the weighted-down being we have come to know on our screens. All are paying a price for this only-too-human ‘corridors of power’ drama.

In the US, the latest Trump Indictment Show from the Deep State and Democrats studio looks to be failing in the ratings from the get-go, so thoroughly, albeit painfully slowly, has the previous Trump Russia Collusion Show narrative been debunked. From the first Spygate operations in 2015-2016, through Russiagate, Mueller, two impeachments, and Durham, not to mention J6, Stormy Daniels and the Trump tax returns, (I’m sure there were more in the series, but it’s too long-running to recall) we’ve all seen this show before, and cannot divorce the current action from the franchise history. Adding to viewer cynicism are the Biden documents stored in his garage, the Clinton documents in his sock drawer, none of this sparking pursuit from law enforcement. Only Trump has interesting documents, it seems. Further undermining this series is the fact that the multitude of document charges refer to process crimes only, not substantive ones; other actors in other franchises (Hillary Clinton, Hunter and Joe Biden) have far outstripped the action here, by committing actual crimes, such as destroying evidence with hammers, and allegedly taking $10 million bribes, and not been punished. But this studio has deep pockets and has overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles such as brain-damaged and demented actors in previous series. Follow-up seasons are planned – a Georgia location is mentioned along with New York.

Here in Australia, the big budget Voice is currently No. 1, and we can see the powerful feelgood narrative, the reconciliation marvels that lie ahead if only viewers stick with the program. This show also offers impressive advertising, top production values and a raft of celebrity supporters; further seasons loom, perhaps covering a Treaty and Reparations but details are tightly held.

One wonders, however, whether the series will still rate when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of what the Voice will actually do. An alarming development occurred in a recent Sky News episode when Voice advocate Noel Pearson said he envisaged the Voice operating locally via ‘deals’: ‘they need to make deals about the football oval, about the housing situation, about the children not attending school, about the curfew hours for children roaming round the streets’. What might various Voice deals mean for community sporting clubs, this viewer wondered. More costly, make-work welcome to country’s at local sporting games? Free parking for Voice officials? A slice of tuckshop revenue? Having spent years sustaining a community sports club, I know many of them flirt daily with insolvency, and the work burden always falls too heavily on a few. There is no fat there for extra bureaucracy or NGOs to make ‘deals’ with, no matter how creative the studio gets with this angle.

Noises Off finishes with the curtain crashing down, literally and symbolically, on the entire production. One wonders how our current shows will end their seasons; certainly those media that run only Act One of these events, without the counterveiling Act Two, risk evisceration from viewers amid a growing distrust of legacy media. Witness Fox News, which has had its ratings gutted after dumping Tucker Carlson’s show. Tucker was a reporter who followed the Trump Show through its various acts, and viewers trusted him for that; his recent 100 million-plus views on Twitter debut suggest a profound hunger for reliable news guides.

Stage-managed news may always have been the case – certainly Evelyn Waugh’s 1938 novel Scoop suggests it has long existed – but secrets were better able to be kept in a pre-internet era. Now, as we know, the internet never forgets, and second acts are ever possible. I doubt that the cover-up of, for example, the JFK assassination would be possible today, given every individual’s easy access to a global stage.

As long as at least one digital outlet can exist censorship-free, ordinary people have a chance of ferreting out the truth. People love to feel that they are motivated by ideals and high-mindedness, but experience shows that the horse called self-interest is always in the race.