The play follows the life of Mabel Howard, an early woman trade unionist and
MP, and New Zealand’s first woman Cabinet Minister.

Mabel was the daughter of trade unionist and Member of Parliament, Ted
Howard, and was elected to Parliament for Christchurch East in a by-election
in February 1943 after her father’s death. She became a ‘high-profile and
sometimes flamboyant’ minister in the first Labour government. She won the
new electorate of Sydenham in 1946 and held the seat until her retirement in
1969 after the Labour Party introduced a mandatory retirement age. Her
health was deteriorating and she was in the early stages of dementia. She
was committed to Sunnyside Hospital, Christchurch, where she died in June
1972.

The play takes part in a number of locations in Christchurch and Wellington,
over around 60 years.