The world as it was in the late 1980s is another country in so many ways. But when it comes to the architecture of power in New South Wales – the turbid confluence of politics, graft and old-school networks – it’s more or less business as usual. David Williamson’s Top Silk, which premiered in 1989 – as did the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), as it happens – retains a striking topicality.

Top Silk explores the personal cost of political ambition through the disintegration of a family divided by competing ideals. Trevor (Nicholas Brown), a celebrated QC with Labor Party connections, is persuaded to enter politics after a conservative government wins office. As his political star rises, he’s drawn into a web of compromises that erode the very principles he so valiantly stands for. It also strains to breaking point his relationships at home with his public defender wife, Jane (Rachel Gordon), and their apparently unexceptional son, Mark (Samir Nasser).

Nicholas Brown, Rachel Gordon and Samir Nasser in Top Silk. Photo © Prudence Upton

While Trevor pursues power, Jane faces a moral dilemma of her own when she’s assigned to defend a man on a drug charge who happens to be an old high-school flame. It’s not long before she’s playing fast and loose with the rules too.

Top Silk is one of Williamson’s more serious-minded plays, closer in tone to 1985’s hard-edged Sons of Cain than 1987’s wryly affectionate Emerald City. Laughs? It has them, but they’re more knowing and rueful than uproarious.

Played on a stylish timber-veneered set that serves both domestic and courtroom settings well, Mark Kilmurry’s production is fast-paced and clear. The first hour before interval feels a touch stiff at this stage, with Williamson’s expository serve-and-return dialogue in the spotlight. It will likely find greater ease and rhythm as the season unfolds.

Scenes featuring Jane and her former boyfriend and client Eddie (Jeremy Waters) have a more natural spark. The second half flows more easily and convincingly.

Jeremy Waters and Rachel Gordon in Top Silk. Photo © Prudence Upton

The minor characters are well drawn. Jamie Oxenbould is Tony, an opportunistic right-wing power broker; Thomas Campbell is the Murdoch-like media mogul Paul Bradley and the world-weary judge deciding Eddie’s fate. Laurence Coy slips perfectly into the guise of a political fixer.

Top Silk plays at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribill, Sydney until 12 September.