Friday March 29, 2024
NOT QUITE OUT OF THE WOODS
Review

NOT QUITE OUT OF THE WOODS

October 13 2010

THE WHARF REVUE: NOT QUITE OUT OF THE WOODS, STC Wharf 2, October 9- December 12, then touring. Photos: Tracey Schramm

LEAVING A THEATRE with an aching face is a mark of how sustained and laugh-out-loud is the 11th (yes – eleventh!) Wharf Revue. The creative trio of Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phil Scott is again joined by Amanda Bishop and she’s a timely and delicious addition because of her uncanny portrayal of the PM. It’s not just the voice, but the body language, gestures and almost imperceptible traits that tell you the Blessed Julia is in the house.

The Revue team deserved a break as good as Bishop. A hard time was had by all in the making of this show. The devising and writing of it took place with a federal election looming and then the unthinkable: a non-result and lengthy hiatus. It left Biggins, Forsythe and Scott swinging in the wind: which way to jump? Overnight Scott lost one of his best gigs in Kevin Rudd, a character he had reasonably thought would be his for years to come. Those who watched him morph from John Howard into Rudd after the Kevin07 election will realise what a performance disappointment the Rudd debacle was for him!

For some months the Revue creators toyed with different approaches and emphasis; for a moment it seemed likely that the show would be tinged unearthly blue and called Abbotar (the jug-eared alien is still in the show but is now merely a clever number among many clever numbers). The title and mood that was finally settled upon echoes the weirdness and new territory we’ve experienced in the last couple of months: not quite out of the woods can be taken in several different ways: and the Revue does just that.

Opening with a sizzling Q&A that skewers the pretension and basic pointlessness of the ABC’s big hit, it also reveals the resources now available to the Revue: no longer a shoestring show, the sophisticated and often complex visuals help the four appear in myriad mini-guises – Drew Forsythe as Michelle Grattan is a killer, for instance.

NOT QUITE OUT OF THE WOODS

Politics and popular culture remain the solid base material for the show. There’s Kristina Keneally and the NSW shambols in the guise of Shakespeare’s unpopular mechanicals, which is almost wonderful and worth being in the line-up anyway. It only pales in comparison to a return to Barry, Wales and the Gillard ancestral semi in a re-working of Under Milk Wood, which is brilliant. “Don Watson’s Party” revisits the Williamson play in a surreal yet deadly accurate fashion that pokes wicked fun at Don Watson rather than the playwright. The biggest crowd-pleaser in an evening of almost constant laughter is probably the acid trip of the Eurovision Song Contest as re-imagined around the lighthearted topic of European sovereign debt.

Not Quite Out Of The Woods is non-stop and mostly irresistible. It’s clever, corny, subtle, silly, fast and funny. Phil Scott reminds – if reminding is needed – in his piano interludes, that he is a scintillating musician. Jonathan Biggins is so utterly unafraid of looking silly that he can cause serious laughter-induced injury just by revealing his ridiculous knobbly knees. Drew Forsythe is a lugubrious and eternally droll presence and, as already mentioned, Amanda Bishop is hilarious and smart as a whip.Also deserving of mention: wardrobe supervisor Emily Christian, wigs: Bonnie Charles and costume assistant Kellie Jones. The audience never sees them but they have non-stop responsibilities behind the scenes.

Not Quite Out Of The Woods is “selling fast” – as it should be. It’s glorious entertainment, but be warned: you will feel pain. Facial muscle massage may be necessary after the show. It’s torture: I love it!

 

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