2024: The End of the Wharf Revue As We Know It ! ! !

 

 

The End of the Wharf Revue As We Know It ! ! !.  Soft Tread Enterprises at Canberra Theatre Centre, October 25-November 2, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
October 28

I do not need to reiterate the enthusiasm of others for the best End of the Wharf Revue imaginable.  The Full House on Monday repeated the opening night’s tears of laughter last Saturday.

So, looking forward to First Tuesday in November – Wednesday our time –  I find myself trying to imagine the End of Trump or the Beginning of Harris as we might know America.  What would happen if the Wharf Revue sails the Pacific Ocean Blue and appears in, say, Pennsylvania, with Mandy Bishop playing Kamala shooting Drew Forsythe as Donald?

Would it be Funny in America?

Seriously, can we imagine the Wharf Revue ever happening in America?  

The fact that Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott with (in different years) Amanda Bishop, Genevieve Lemon, Jacki Weaver, Helen Dallimore and recently David Whitney, could have become icons of such withering political satire – for 25 years in a row! – says a very great deal about Australia, the Lucky Country – so ironically named by Donald Horne 60 years ago.

If there’s one crucial reason why I’m glad my £10 Pom parents fortuitously (in fact it was accidentally) sailed me on the oceans (mainly green) from Rotherhithe on the Thames to magnificent Sydney Harbour 70 years ago, is that I have come to appreciate Jacqui Lambie’s “no bullshit” approach to politics.  

Only in Australia could such a woman be elected to Parliament, surely.  And only in Australia could Amanda Bishop make her Your MC at the Parliament House Midwinter Ball.

Amanda Bishop as Jacqui Lambie
The End of the Wharf Revue As We Know It ! ! !
2024

 

Thank you, Australia, for the Wharf Revue.  May you live forever.

©Frank McKone, Canberra