With a dress even redder than her hair, Julia Gillard - as portrayed by Amanda Bishop - burst forth defiantly in song to the tune of the Habanera from Bizet's Carmen. She criticised ''not the faceless but the faithless men'' among others who had done her wrong.
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The former prime minister's lament was part of Whoops! The Wharf Revue 2013, which opened at the Playhouse on Tuesday.
Bishop - who has impersonated Gillard on television and on stage for several years - said it had been ''an absolute honour'' to portray Australia's first female prime minister. ''It was very difficult - it took me a while to get the voice. Once I got that it made it a lot easier,'' she said.
Bishop said the reception the character had received during this tour had been gratifying and hoped she would get the opportunity to play her again. ''Now I have to get on to my Tanya Plibersek,'' she said, referring to the recently elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition. ''I really admire Tanya, too.''
Jonathan Biggins - the show's co-creator as well as a performer - said the title Whoops! was based on the Theatre of the Absurd quality that politics had descended to, with a ''dysfunctional'' press gallery, a breathtakingly hypocritical new Prime Minister in Tony Abbott (who, among other things, claimed expenses to attend the wedding of former speaker Peter Slipper, whose career he destroyed) and a slavish devotion to the 24-hour news cycle. And that was just for starters.
Still, it all made for a rich source of material, with the subjects being tackled this year at home and abroad including Eddie Obeid, the Arab Spring and the National Rifle Association.
Biggins said Canberra had ''the sharpest, most responsive audience we get in the country. Even if they don't want to, they're just involved in it.''
He said the role of satire was as ''a release valve for people'' and that in Australia people did not tend to take things - including politics - too seriously. ''At the same time, we hope it encourages people to see things in a slightly different light and see things in a different way,'' he said.
■ Whoops! The Wharf Revue 2013 is on at The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre each day until Saturday at 8pm with a 2pm matinee on Saturday. Tickets $35-$63. Bookings: 6275 2700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au
