Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott, founders of what has become a cultural institution since it premiered at Sydney Theatre Company in 2000, are waving goodbye with their final annual satirical show, The End of the Wharf as We Know It!!!
The reasons are many.
“We’re getting older,” Forsythe says.
“Speak for yourself,” Scott fires back.
Drew Forsythe, Jonathan Biggins and Phil Scott, back where it all started.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Sitting together at the Walsh Bay pier where the revue was first staged, Forsythe, Scott and Biggins are warm and wisecracking.
They are not sad to go. After a quarter of a century, a combination of semi-retirement and other projects and interests are calling.
“Keeping up with politics is enough to drive you mad eventually,” Forsythe says. “It’ll be nice not to have to read the papers every day, follow the news every day, and get upset and angry.”
Biggins nods.
“We watch Sky News,” he says. “That’s how bad it is.”
The trio, whose first collaboration was 1987 ABC TV comedy series The Dingo Principle, 13 years before forming the Wharf Revue at the encouragement of Robyn Nevin and Rob Brookman, STC’s former artistic director and general manager, promise a last hurrah brimming with old and new favourites.
“We’re not doing old material, but we are bringing back some old characters,” Biggins says.
Expect appearances from former prime ministers Paul Keating, John Howard, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Regular revue collaborators David Whitney, known for his Peter Dutton, and Mandy Bishop, whose rendering of Gillard inspired ABC TV series At Home With Julia, are also on board.
There will also be swansongs from Alexander Downer, Peter Costello, Bob Carr, Jacqui Lambie, Adam Bandt, Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson. And possibly the Democrats.
Biggins says the show will hark back across two decades of topicality between current news hotspots and what’s popular in the zeitgeist.
“So I might be doing Angus Taylor Swift,” Biggins says.
They’re keen to tackle PFAS, billionaires and the swath of British notables making TV documentaries about Australia.
“I’m playing Miriam Margolyes,” Scott says. “She comes over here and meets nobody who’s Australian. Prince Charles is in the outback, Joanna Lumley’s on a speaking tour. They’re all here.”
Biggins says the main lesson from 25 years of analysing news is its cyclical nature.
“You look at the issues that we were tackling in the first two years of the show and they’re exactly the same now,” he says. “When Dutton starts calling out boat people and border protection? The Tampa [refugee affair] was in 2001.
“Climate change? That was all happening then, nothing’s changed. Wealth inequality was growing. Nothing’s changed.
“They tried to get rid of negative gearing. They haven’t. All those issues are still around. It’s just the characters that have changed.”
Scott: “And some of them haven’t.”
Do they think satire as an art form is dwindling?
“Monetised satire is dwindling,” Biggins says. “It’s harder to make a living from it now.”
They’ve watched satire’s evolution on social media but say newspaper political cartoonists are still its best exponents.
“Cathy Wilcox, David Rowe, David Pope,” Forysthe says. “All those guys, they’re always spot-on and nail the subject.
Biggins believes satire has a new role.
“As we become increasingly polarised, comedy and satire are reminders of the common ground between people,” he says. “That means not being malicious. There’s so much cruelty going on, who needs more?”
All will miss the show, including the frantic backstage costume changes and the generations of audiences seeking a humorous release valve.
“I think people do worry about issues much more than they used to,” Biggins says. “Laughing about things, at least for one night, takes some of the pressure off.
“Life really is far too important to be taken seriously.”
The End of the Wharf as We Know It!!! Is at the Seymour Centre, Nov 11-Dec 7
WHO’S IN?
Biggins: “We’ll definitely have Pauline Hanson doing the cabaret of her life and Jacqui Lambie hosting the Midwinter Ball and singing River Deep, Mountain Mine.”
Forsythe: “There’s a piece about nuclear power and a documentary series, based on the ABC’s Nemesis, called Hindsight, looking back at the last 25 years under topics of leadership, the environment, the economy and foreign affairs.”
Biggins: “Tech bros going to Mars; Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. We’ve turned ourselves in martians with suits and masks – Bezos we didn’t have to do too much with.”
WHO MIGHT BE
Biggins: “We’re hoping to do Kevin, Julia and Albo in 1984 at the federal ALP conference. Hawke comes on to give them advice, as they all say, ‘I’d love to be the leader … well, we can’t all be’.”
IS IT REALLY THE END?
Scott: “The first show was in the year of the Sydney Olympics. We might bring it all back in eight years to do the Brisbane Olympics. That’d be gold.”
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
Biggins: “My favourite costume change mishap was when Phillip and I were doing the New Zealand swim team in neck-to-ankle Lycra suits. We’re changing very quickly and Philip put his leg into the arm.”
Scott: “And then I couldn’t get it out. I was half-in, half-out. It was horrible.”
Biggins: “Once, at Wharf Two, off-stage was suddenly filled with thousands of flying ants from an erupted nest somewhere. We are running about with them in our mouths, costumes and wigs.”
Forsythe: “All on a hot Sunday afternoon.”
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