Waiting For Garnaut
Waiting for Garnaut, Wharf 1, August 5-32 (season extended) then touring; phone: (02) 9250 1999 or www.sydneytheatre.org.au. Cast: Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe, Phillip Scott and Amanda Bishop.
THE latest Wharf Revue, aka Waiting For Garnaut, is the political revue working families had to have. It is neither revolting nor disgusting and no allegedly nude children were abused during the making of it. Instead, in line with the white and green papers issued by the Rudd government following a wide-ranging enquiry, it has been reverse engineered in the absence of multilateral security mechanisms.
Biggins, Forsythe and Scott have oversighted the evolution of a series of confidence and security-building measures coming off the back of previous CSBMs (such as Revue Sans Frontieres, Best We Forget, Stuff All Happens, Sunday in Iraq With George) and there is now a greater synergy between policy leadership across the board and CCS, EWS and the STC disaster management organisational personnel initiatives.
With the entry into the working family team of new recruit Amanda Bishop, peak body of comedy policy and its associated think-tank are responsible, clear, consultative as they calmly, coolly and methodically tackle climate control, carbon paper, nocturnal emissions and recession genes, even though it's difficult, it's hard and it's complex particularly when working Kevin24/07.
Okay, that’s enough Rudd-speak. The Wharf Revue creative trio is back with a cracking and subtly different show. It’s sillier (if that’s possible) and at once more serious; it’s tight and varied; new girl Amanda Bishop slots in with ease and is not noticeably over-awed by the company. From its opening sequence of Beckettian non sequiturs, to a remake of The Sound of Music featuring an unctuous, lip-licking Sister Kevin; through territory both familiar and sharply fresh, Waiting For Garnaut is the revue we had to have as we apparently slide back to the future and 1929.
The team shows admirable economic restraint by utilising the revolve and stage construction left over from The Great, which also enables them to twirl with the dizzying and concentrically circular motion of Brendan Nelson on climate change.
Phil Scott was a wonderful John Howard and is now an even better KRudd. It’s spooky. He’s also ranged farther and wider with the music for this show than previously and when he’s not being hilarious he’s great to listen to. Biggins and Forsythe are predictably unpredictable (Forsythe creating mayhem at a piano recital, Biggins as PJ Keating) and altogether it’s as good a night out as you’d get without excess alcopops.
