Imagine being a work experience actor or writer in the rehearsal room for The Wharf Revue’s latest show. What a laugh that would be.
It sounded like a good idea but, on second thoughts, maybe not, according to one of the comic geniuses behind this troupe, Jonathan Biggins, who co-wrote the latest show with Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott.
“Someone actually suggested that someone on work experience could sit in on rehearsal,” he confirms. “But I said, that’s not a good idea with tired old cynics like us who speak freely and would possibly say the wrong thing. We do observe some boundaries but younger writers and actors might not get it. The modern rehearsal room is a minefield.”
And with the sort of jokes The Wharf Revue canvases, going behind the scenes might have proved, well, explosive. In that rehearsal, there were a few gags deemed too risky to air publicly, but that’s not to suggest the latest show is watered down in any way.
The Wharf Revue: The End of The Wharf As We Know It, started touring late last year and comes to QPAC in Brisbane for a short, hilarious season from February 11 to 16.
“So funny, it’ll have you laughing out loud. So true, it’ll make you squirm” – the publicity blurb says. Which is an attractive proposition because there’s not much that does make you laugh out loud nowadays.
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I started laughing the moment I saw the images from this year’s show. There’s David Whitney trussed up as Clive Palmer, Forsythe in drag as Gina Rhinehart (oh, behave) and Whitney as a Peter Dutton-esque Homer Dutton (a la Homer Simpson).
Biggins confesses he and the cast (Biggins, Mandy Bishop, Forsythe, Scott and Whitney) are largely inner-west Sydney lefties, yet their satire pokes fun at both sides of politics and the bits in the middle.
Who can forget Jim Chalmers with huge elf ears last time around? That made everyone, including the federal treasurer, roar with laughter.
Biggins says that by poking fun at everyone The Wharf Revue manages to appeal to a wide variety of people.
“Two busloads from The Australian Club came to watch it in Sydney,” he says. “The sort of satire we do is actually to remind people what unites them. Laughing collectively is a great way to do that. We bridge the political divide.”
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Lampooning everyone and everything is the secret. Not that there isn’t a serious message inherent in much of the humour. It’s subtle, however, which means the humour is thought-provoking.
This tour is something of a victory lap because after 25 years this is The Wharf Revue’s final production. Unable to hide my disappointment, I ask Biggins why. WHY!?
“I think you want to go out on a high,” Biggins replies. “We could have handed it on, but there was no succession plan.”
Probably just as well considering how succession plans have tended to go lately. Just as we see in the show, the way Rupert Murdoch turns up and helps Homer Dutton reignite the climate wars with his nuclear power plans.
All our favourites from across the years return including former PMs Keating, Rudd, Gillard and Howard, and even Hawke. Then there’s wannabe PM Dutton and rabble-rousers such as senators Hanson (Forsythe, in drag again) and Lambie, played as usual by Bishop, who is side-splittingly funny. She’s even funnier than Lambie herself.
Even the Democrats are resurrected for this final fling and The Greens turn up in matching green track suits to sing Bandt to the tune of Michael Jackson’s Bad.
Then there’s Angus Taylor Swift … nobody saw that coming. What a way to go out, in a blaze of hilarity.
“We’ll serve one last term to max out the super and then try to pick up some kind of consultancy work or do a series of Survivor,” Biggins says. “Look, it’s too early to say what we’ll do, but it has been an honour to serve the Australian people.”
What can we say? Thank you for your service.
The Wharf Revue: The End Of The Wharf As We Know It, Playhouse, QPAC, February 11-16; qpac.com.au