I can’t remember the last time I went to a show and someone farted on stage. Although, that’s no longer entirely true because it was just last night in the Playhouse at QPAC during The Wharf Revue: The End Of The Wharf As We Know It.
When an elderly woman came on stage using a walker, we wondered what was going on. She then introduced herself as Miriam Margolyes, that indefatigable and somewhat flatulent British actor and entertainer. Margolyes appears in a number of travel programs but in this one she is somewhere beyond the Black Stump where she runs into fellow travel writer Joanna Lumley (played exquisitely by Mandy Bishop), King Charles and that fellow who stars in Doc Martin whose name I can never remember. Martin Clunes! That’s the chap.
It’s a surreal scene punctuated by explosions of wind from Margolyes’ derriere. Lest you think that’s cruel, it’s a well-known fact that she loves passing wind and constantly refers to doing so. I interviewed her last year (over the phone, thankfully) and joked with her about wondering when the subject might come up in our conversation. “Funny you should mention it,” she said, “because I just farted.”
The vignette featuring Margolyes was just one in a string of hilarious and sometimes quite satirically cutting sketches making up The Wharf Revue’s final show. After 25 years they are calling it quits, which is fair enough. Because it’s enough, already. Right?
As an audience member I want to shout: “No!” Because it’s never enough from this talented bunch. But I understand they might need a rest. That being the case, I urge you to book early and book often for the show because it is only on at QPAC until Sunday (February 16).
We were so looking forward to going because we needed a good laugh. And that’s the thing about The Wharf Revue – the shows make you laugh our loud. And think.
Created by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott, it stars that trio plus Mandy Bishop and David James. What a talented bunch they are, musically and as thespians. (Not lesbians. That’s Margolyes, as she kept telling us.)
The show starts with Biggins’ masterful Paul Keating reflecting on the 25 years and whether political satire really has any effect on culture. I would suggest it does by lampooning the whole edifice of our political scene in a healthy and democratic fashion.
If not, though, who cares? Because it’s hilarious and I love the way they mix lowbrow humour (fart jokes, for example) with serious political commentary, albeit delivered for laugh. Although they always add one piece of serious reflection – this time around it’s about the state of the US to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s America.
There were so many highlights in this finale. Forsythe’s Pauline Hanson was utterly brilliant. He’s a Queenslander so maybe that helped him channel her. The Adam Bandt hip-hop segment featuring Biggins and Bishop in green tracksuits rapping about The Greens in a spoof of Michael Jackson’s Bad was priceless.
So was that scene where three young future PMs meet at a dance – young Albo, square-bear Kevin from Queensland (he was there to help) and Julia Gillard – with a pop-in by none other than Bob Hawke himself, aka Forsythe.
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Mandy Bishop’s Jacqui Lambie made a reappearance and she was as Bogan as ever, gorgeously so. Also, I loved the flashbacks to nonsensical utterances by a string of former PMs. The Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart scene starring David James and Forsythe (yet again) was fabulous. Frankly, there was never a dull moment.
This is political cabaret worthy of Weimar (which gets a mention) and it’s a rollicking ride at almost two hours long. It’s the most fun you can have sitting down.
The Wharf Revue: The End Of The Wharf As We Know It runs at the QPAC Playhouse until February 16.