If you like political comedy, the Canberra Theatre Centre is the place to be. Not only has the satirical stalwart show The Wharf Revue returned for its Canberra season, but in the foyer is a preview selection of the year's political cartoons from Behind the Lines 2018: Curiouser and Curiouser.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Jonathan Biggins, Simon Burke, Rachael Beck, Douglas Hansell and Andrew Worboys are performing in this year's revue. Biggins said Canberra was "the spiritual home of The Wharf Revue".
Biggins is also co-creator and co-writer with Drew Forsythe (who is recovering from an operation) of the revue. He said the subtitle of this year's show, Deja Revue, came from the feeling that "the revolving door went around again".
Many of the year's events, including leadership changes and challenges, had an all too familiar feel, he said.
"Have these guys learned nothing from what's happened?"
Apparently not, which might be bad for the country but is a gift for satirists.
Malcolm Turnbull deposing Tony Abbott as prime minister and in turn being replaced by Scott Morrison, US president Donald Trump seeking advice on becoming leader for life, Barnaby Joyce's exploits, a quartet of Mathias Cormanns singing to the tune of a song from The Book of Mormon - all this and more is part of this year's revue. Even former prime minister Paul Keating makes an appearance.
Biggins said there was some frantic rewriting after the result in the Wentworth by-election on the weekend (and some anxiety the day after when the result seemed uncertain).
"The criticism, often, is that we're not biting enough, not strong enough," Biggins said.
"We don't set out to offend people - people want a laugh.
"If we can extract laughs from both sides of the political divide, that's our favourite thing to do."
Extracting laughs from politics is also the role of the cartoons in Behind the Lines. Curator Libby Stewart said this year's subtitle, Curiouser and Curiouser, came from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
"Alice fell down a deep rabbit hole into an unreal, wonderful and strange world where nothing is as it seems," she said.
"Sometimes it feels like we're living in a parallel universe."
Among the popular cartoon topics this year, she said, were the banking royal commission, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the drought and Donald Trump.
She said there were nearly 90 cartoons in this year's exhibition from more than 30 cartoonists including David Rowe, Matt Golding, Cathy Wilcox and former Canberra Times cartoonists Pat Campbell and Geoff Pryor as well as its current cartoonist, David Pope.
New cartoonists this year included New Zealander Rod Emerson and Jason Chatfield, an Australian working in New York.
Chatfield, she said, had a cartoon of Trump published in The New Yorker.
"Trump saw it and liked it - that horrified the artist."
The Wharf Revue 2018: Deja Revue is on at the Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre until November 3. canberratheatrecentre.com.au. Behind the Lines 2018: Curiouser and Curiouser is on at the Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House from November 16. moadoph.gov.au.
