The Wharf Revue: THE END OF THE WHARF AS WE KNOW IT. Writers Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Philip Scott.
Directors Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe. Producer Jo Dyer. Lighting Designer Matt Cox. Sound and Video Systems Designer Cameron Smith. Costume Designers Hazel and Scott Fisher. Video Designer Todd Decker. Musical Director Philip Scott. Performed by Jonathan Biggins, Mandy Bishop, Drew Forsythe, Phillip Scott, David Whitney. A Soft Tread Production. Canberra Theatre. Canberra Theatre Centre. October 26- November 2 2024. Bookings 62435711 or canberratheatre.org.au.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Could this really be the end as we know it? Is it possible that after twenty-five years of dazzling, biting, hysterically funny and pointedly sobering satire, the Wharf Revue team should call it a day? If so, then that is every reason why you should rush to buy a ticket, so hot that it sizzles with the promise of a night of wit and talent that you will never forget. Is it possible that this satirical swan song could bid farewell to the favourites of so many digs and jibes, swipes and spoofs at our political leaders and politicians of all persuasions? What checks and balances will remain without Jonathan Biggins’s Paul Keating, Drew Forsythe’s Pauline Hanson, Philip Scott’s Kevin Rudd, David Whitney’s Peter Dutton and Mandy Bishop’s Julia Gillard?
Hindsight and foresight merge to create a lesson of the past and an omen of the future. Is AI the pathway to a new world or will the Wharf’s Revue prophetic claim of a world destroyedby AI by 2032 force humanity to seek out a new world on Mars? In a poignant and lamenting sketch, the promise of hope and dreams imagined by Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama and Martin Luther King Junior give way to the the lamentable lowering of the stars and stripes on the pole. Laughter and ridicule may be this indefatigable troupe of satirist’s weapon of enlightenment but there is always the barb of prophesy to remind us that comedy is a serious business.
There are so many gems in this brilliant company’s crowning farewell to their devoted and obviously partisan audience. Mandy Bishop’s in your face portrayal of Jaqui Lambie’s performance as MC at the parliamentary Midwinter Ball is a full throttled projectile spray, a veritable force to be reckoned with that brings cheers and whistles from the adoring audience. Forsythe has Hanson down pat with more malapropisms than a Roget’s Tyrannosaurus. Aspiring PMs get words of advice from Labor’s hero Hawkie at a 1984 disco.Whitney’s Dutton with the bald head and monotone drone is greeted with gales of laughter and delighted recognition and to top it all off Biggins hits the high note with his impersonation of Angus Taylor Swift in flimsy costume and with his hit response to every fact - Make It Up. It is sketches like these that have made the Wharf Revue the must see show of the year. .
With musical director Philip Scott on piano, Jonathan Biggins on guitar and Whitney on drums Australia’s favourite spinners of satire also give excellent backing to Bishop’s remarkable vocals in pointedly reworded numbers to music from Cole Porter to Noel Coward and Michel Legrand to Jonathan Larsen. The melodies are familiar, but the lyrics cast fresh light on our political landscape.
“Can satire bring about social change?” Biggins’s Keating asks. Maybe not, but whether it be yes or no, the Wharf Revue’s team have been at the forefront of political satire and their farewell will leave a huge hole in Australia’s entertaining tradition of political accountability. Perhaps we can hope for a revitalized reincarnation. After all this is the “end as we know it.” Perhaps there is a new beginning to discover. The Wharf Revue is a national treasure too precious to lose.
A shorter season has propelled the Wharf Revue into Canberra’s main theatre. Judging by the response of the full house on opening night, the farewell show will sell out in the blink of a pollie’s one eye. The Wharf Revue’s THE END OF THE WHARF AS WE KNOW IT is a last hurrah you can’t afford to miss.
