Looking for Al...

First up for the night was the Wharf Review, this time called Looking for Albanese, obviously channeling Looking for Alibrandi.  Also obviously with suggestions of a tentative government, perhaps justified after 2019.  Again the four Wharfies, variously musicians and scriptwriters and singers and performers.  The themes are various characters in Australian and occasional International political matters.  The short sketches are (almost?) always pop or musical numbers rethemed and relyricised.  Oh, and a lengthy rhyme from Katy Gallagher as Finance Minister.  The whole started with four singing dummies then through all manner of pollies.  I noticed a preponderance of skits on Labor matters, no doubt following the election that trounced Morrison and his do-nothing spendthrifts.  I don't think Dutton, leader of the opposition, even appears (think Yepon/Yeppoon: I have no idea of spelling but I'm not from Queensland unlike Dutton).  Barnaby and Katter as apt.  Jackie Lambie appeared as a boot-skooter to introduce and sing at Tamworth.  The Greens got a spot as the alt.Wiggles.  Amusing if pretty obvious.  There was a fabulous scene of Gillard, Keating and Rudd at National Conference.  Similarly, Albanese was consistently believable.  The night started fairly tame, I thought, with limited laugh and applause, but finished with a take on West Side Story and Albo and mates, with dance/song numbers from the Rumble and Gee, Officer Krupke.  Most impressive and the biggest laugh and best received and apt as the last number of the night.  Not the belly laughs of previous Wharves that I've seen, but they are a hoot.

Jonathan Biggins, Mandy Bishop, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott appeared in the Wharf Review called Looking for Albanese at the Canberra Playhouse.

Telling on our times

It's not a good time these days, with Covid and climate and government so maybe that's why I didn't get so many belly-laughs at the latest Wharf Revue.  Yeah, they were funny and I did laugh outright at the skit on Jacquie Lambie.  The swearing helps with its shock value, of course, not that that was the only skit with swearing.  But I also warm to Jacquie: a rough jewel but she speaks truth and owns up to mistakes.  Not so our PM or the party in general.  Not so much some of our media.  Murdoch got a run with Mephistopheles in a skit on selling souls, but, if I caught the humour right, it was a turnaround with Murdoch doing the selling and Satan the buyer.  An interesting twist.  My heart sank with a big skit on housing with Dorothy as a hopeful home-seeker and the Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion as various real estate people and, interesting, the Wizard as Philip Lowe, head of the Reserve Bank.  The ScoMo skit was meagre like the man and Albo didn't even get a skit.  That says something.  His one appearance was as a potential planetary saviour as seen by despairing aliens: one pic on a screen, that's all.  There was a decent Trump skit; a big cabaret number by Michaelia Cash; Barnaby Joyce showing three others through his man (coal) cave; a Kublai Khan rehash for Xi Jinping; an impressive Armenian song, with balalaika, for Gladys B; some ex-PMs, Rudd and Howard; Pauline Hanson, of course.  So on for 90 mins.  All somewhat sad and pretty telling of our country at present.  The response, too, was indicative: supportive but not overwhelmed.  I only noticed one standing ovation.  Nonetheless, good on the Wharf Revue and shame on our politics.  Pretty costly though, but that I can understand: artists don't sell furniture.

The Wharf Revue 2021 was entitled Can of worms.  The WR is created by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phil Scott and Mandy Bishop joins them in performance.

• Thanks to the WR for the use of their banner.  I trust they won't mind.

Satirising ultimate failure

It was the Wharf Revue and the title was the Patriotic Rag and it was at the Playhouse and it was pretty full. The Wharf Revue is an institution and well received in this town, a home to the building and the institutional support of our Federal Parliament and government. The Wharfies are witty, one is a capable pianist, they sing and dance their way through lots of characters who we all recognise, some of whom look surprisingly close to the mark (from distance, Julie Bishop was a ring-in), the skits are quick and well written and mostly well heard from a distance (I just missed a few lines, especially amongst music), the topics are current. It's all eminently professional. There's the problem: the problems they satirise are current and seemingly insurmountable. We read them every day in the paper. We read the disappointments and complaints and failures and lack of policy and you'd think there might somewhere, sometime, be some hope. But no. Just pusilanimous backsliding and Tea Party reaction and obstinacy. Coal is king; science is conspiracy; truth is conditional. War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength ... er, my slip-up ... The Left bears some blame with its radical relativity and identity politics that just leaves the field open for reactionary right-thinking and economic self interest. So, housing, climate, energy, democracy, refugees, wars, all failures or failing; all within the context of existential climate, food, water and such threats. And the bomb even makes its reappearance. No joy. It's argued that satire is a powerful weapon. Perhaps, although satire is the nature of much political information these days (eg. Fallon, Colbert) and that's coincided with all this failure of political possibilities. Satire is amusing, especially for those in the know, but is it effective? And I wonder how the Wharfies get away with some things they say. How much is satire protected under law? The identities, individuals or corporates are clear, often named, and ruthlessly shamed and ridiculed. Skits on tax-avoiding multinationals; Trump as Louis XIV, Eliz1 and Vlad the Impaler were stunning; more Trump of course. Dutton as Mr Potatohead, Turnbull as the Working class man, Abbott as the Joker to Wonderwoman Lambie, Hanson, Joyce, Roberts and the rest. Shorten was strangely peripheral, just mentioned, or maybe that's the relevant satire. The CFMEU got a hit along with Michaela Cash. I chuckled but it's all too dark for laughter. The final, terminal song was Let's face the music and dance. It's another great song by Irving Berlin, performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Follow the Fleet. I watched the YouTube video afterwards. They each, separately, are desperate and suicidal, but meet and instead dance. Thus was the Wharfies' final message for the night.

The Wharf Revue 2017, the Patriotic Rag, was at the Playhouse. It's written and created by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott. They perform with Blazey Best.