It’s fitting that Maggie MacDonald is one of four self-appointed prime ministers of the Republic of Safety. She’s a political and creative force, using art as her weapon of choice. Her current bands, The Hidden Cameras and the aforementioned Republic of Safety, are musical meeting points for sex and politics. She’s exhibited her visual art and had her comics published in The Globe and Mail and Lola magazine. When she was just 20, MacDonald ran a dynamic campaign as a provincial NDP candidate. Her writing, which has received accolades from none other than quintessential riot grrl Kathleen Hanna, includes a self-published magazine, the illustrated novel Kill The Robot and critically-acclaimed plays.

This Friday at 6:30pm you can catch Hart House Writer-in-Residence MacDonald reading from her latest play, with the help of “sci-folk” musician Laura Barrett, at the Hart House Library. The Rat King is a rock opera for the stage that chronicles a dystopian world marked by a deteriorating human race and crumbling planet. The outlook for Earth may be bleak, but here’s some good news – admission is free.

Photo by Carrie Musgrave.