Former Canberran Daniel Widdowson has run into trouble just describing his play Worm Farming.

"It's a black comedy about the refugee crisis: some people have been offended just at that line."

But given there is a refugee crisis in the world, and Widdowson wanted to say something a bit different about it, he decided to tackle the subject with dark humour.

The play centres on the Dawes family, outer Australian suburbanites. Andy, played by Widdowson, sells worm manure and is married to Ashley (Alicia Simes). They are not the most sensitive people in the world.

"They are terribly racist and don't even know they are," Widdowson says.

Nevertheless, they're being assessed by Simone (Cara Smith), a representative from the Refugee Council of Australia, as to whether they are fit to take in a Syrian refugee.

"They think it's a lovely thing to do, helping out their fellow man."

Not that they're even model parents, let alone model citizens. Their self-centred daughter, Kirstie (Tyla Williams) lives her life on social media and their son Nicky (Christopher Bartlett) wishes they'd acknowledge his existence

Add in the neighbours from hell, Mike (Jayden Gobbe) and Jen (Emily Mann) and, eventually, the refugee himself, Ferran (Nicki Kaalim), and the scene is set, Widdowson says, for a play with some very dark-tinged comedy indeed. The Dawes family must try to impress the representative, display their cultural awareness and sensitivity, prove themselves worthy to take in Ferran, and keep unwanted elements at bay. It's all a big challenge.

"Not everybody makes it out alive - literally."

Because of what he calls the "no holds barred" nature of his play and the sensitivity of the subject matter, Widdowson asked several playwrights for feedback on the script. All but one were encouraging; the exception, a Queensland writer, was "disgusted" and called the play " irredeemably racist", Widdowson says, which gave him pause.

Widdowson approached prominent barrister and refugee advocate Julian Burnside through contacts and asked him to read the play and say if he thought it was racist.

"He read it and said he thought it was hilarious and gave it his endorsement."

Given that boost, Widdowson was confident to go ahead. He produced Worm Farming with his own Salt House Theatre Company, based in Kincumber, NSW. Its other productions include his adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. He brought in Diane Ormsby to direct, since he doesn't like acting and directing in the same production, and set up a short initial tour this year in the hopes of refining the play for a national tour in 2018. There will be three weeks between the two Canberra performances during which changes might be incorporated.

The play will be performed at the National Museum of Australia rather than a conventional theatre, Widdowson says, "to give it an edge, to say something about the show ... we want people to expect something different".

Widdowson, 36, was born in Canberra and moved around with his family in his early years before returning to attend school at Daramalan College. He did the Rock Eisteddfod in Year 9 and decided performing was what he wanted to pursue. He studied dance and drama and NIDA short courses.

"When I finished school, instead of Schoolies, two friends and I produced a play, The Art of Ventrication, at Theatre 3."

He then moved to Sydney to pursue acting full time, working at Fox Studios and becoming the face of its tour before landing a seven-year job as one of the hosts of Saturday Disney on Channel Seven, where he learned a lot about other aspects of writing, acting and directing. He also met Leia, the woman who was to become his wife, at a Channel Seven Christmas party. They have two children.