Love Songs For Sir Les
With Barry Humphries and guests . Directed by Andy Packer. Musical direction by Vanessa Scammell. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The Festival Theatre.Adelaide Festival Centre. June 20. 2015
Barrie Humphries
Artistic Director o the 2015 Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Who better than Australia’s
dissipated champion of cultural cringe, Sir Les Pattison, to host a final night
concert of the Barry Humphries Adelaide Cabaret Festival. This crass,
uncultured, debauched, degenerate and disgustingly crude relic of the nation’s
sorry state of the arts with his spraying spittle, colossal crotch and bulbous
red visage remains forever etched in the memory as one of Barry Humphries most
unforgettable, if for some most detestable characters. For the packed audience
of the Festival at this one-off farewell to three weeks of scintillating no
rules cabaret offered a tasty degustation of talent, including the amazing Ali
McGregor, who introduces the audience to her sidewalk of lost souls and lovers
and losers. Sir Les, accompanied by his scantily clad Lesettes, dishes the muck
with his rhyming expletive that Humphries claimed would not see the light of
cabaret at his festival. But then he was leaving the following day so why give
a…..
Barry Humphries as Sir Les Pattison
For those who have followed the
despicable antics of the master of satire’s most vulgar creation over the
decades, there is little surprise and abundant delight in the metaphors that he
heaps upon his delighted admirers. And, judging by the uproarious laughter, the
theatre was full of adoring fans. Humphries’ talent has always been to hold the
mirror up to the unwitting victims of his sharp satirical bite and allow them
to laugh at themselves, to delight in the innuendo and to see others as they do
not see themselves. With rapier wit, harmless insult and groundling grossness,
Sir Les lets the crude quip slip from the lip as he tells his audience that he
is” off to Bangkok to get his rocket polished. His frontal insult attack is
swiftly launched at an unsuspecting lady in the front row, “You’ve got a face
like a half sucked mango”.
Sir Les only
makes a handful of short appearances, leaving the stage to the talents of the
likes of McGregor, Amelia Ryan, The Songbirds, Trevor Ashley, Lady Rizo, all
backed by the Adelaide Art Orchestra. With a parting cliché Pattison offers a
stereotypical view of the arts sung in guttural contempt, There’s a Lot Of Poofters In The Arts!
Set against a
plush bordello design upon the vast Festival Theatre stage, Love Songs For Sir Les offers a pot
pourri sample of festival highlights, mostly from the final week of what has
been hailed as the most successful Cabaret Festival yet. The final concert is a
tribute to the many local, national and international artists who have
illuminated the many guises of cabaret within the Festival Centre precinct. The
talent is palpable in the one-off farewell event and it would be remiss of me
to apply the same criteria of quality to the production. Under the direction of
Andy packer, it has obviously been hurriedly put together. With so many busy
artists involved in their own shows, and Humphries offering his own
performances as dame Edna and Sir Les as well as playing mine host to the weeks
of non-stop entertainment, the best that packer could hope for I that he marshals
the artists and ensures the smooth transition from act to act. For the audience
it is a showcase smorgasbord of talent and a feat of fun entertainment and a
fitting finale to a jewel in the city’s festivals crown.
Barry Humphries waves goodbye to his festival
The
octogenarian monarch of satirical entertainment and the star-bright artistic
director of the 2015 Adelaide Cabaret Festival offers his final bow and has
handed the baton to two of cabarets brightest stars, Ali McGregor and Eddie
Perfect to take on the mantle in 2016. Young, enthusiastic, experienced and
bursting with talent, they promise excitement, energy and a dynamic programme
of events for the 2016 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, and a worthy successor to
this year’s phenomenal celebration of cabaret under Barry Humphries and his
team. Mark June 10-25 in your calendar
as your 2016 Adelaide Cabaret Festival experience. By order of none
other than your cultural Czar, the Right Honourable Sir Les Pattison!.
