If you saw The Wharf Revue in 2023 you will remember Jim Chalmers’ ears.

Jonathan Biggins, one of the co-conspirators behind the show, took it upon himself to portray the Brisbane-based Federal Treasurer as a wingnut. He apologised before the show for any offence, but went ahead with it anyway.

There wasn’t any offence taken, as it happened, as Chalmers went to the show, loved it and hobnobbed with the cast afterwards.

So, who gets a touch-up this year? The Wharf Revue is political satire of the highest degree and no-one is safe or immune from their lampooning.

When its latest iteration, The Wharf Revue: Pride in Prejudice, comes to QPAC for a short season from March 5 we can be sure anyone who deserves satirising will be satirised. The Voice Referendum is on the agenda, for sure. Which is why the show has a touch of Jane Austen about the title although, read it carefully, it’s not Pride and Prejudice.

The show opens with the Austen-themed sketch about the referendum and another Queenslander gets a mention. Yes, Peter Dutton, of course.

“Dutton said no, just to wedge Albanese,” Biggins says, demonstrating that nothing gets past him. “It was cynical politics. David Whitney plays Peter Dutton and he makes a great Dutton.”

Dutton should probably feel privileged because only political players of significance make it into The Wharf Revue, with withering commentary and hilarious take-offs. It’s a badge of honour to have them take the mickey out of you.

Writers Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott are, however, never nasty or unkind, which is a neat trick. But they do make us laugh until our sides split.

Forsythe is a Queenslander and his Bob Katter last year was a hoot. His Katter was “the mad Katter” in a sketch called Albo in Wonderland. Talk about laugh. Mandy Bishop’s Jacqui Lambie was another highlight last year.

This year the show begins with that period drama.

“We go the full Jane Austen,” Biggins says. “I play the mother and Mandy is Mr Darcy.”

Mandy is Biggins’ partner and she stars alongside him, Forsythe, Whitney and Michael Tyack. The prejudice theme runs through the sketch with reference to The Voice Referendum and debate which satirises both sides of politics for their failures.

The publicity blurb for the show promises that “satirical content is up 7 per cent, the average laughter quotient is indexed at 8.3 per cent over the forward estimates but The Wharf Revue defies the cost-of-living pressure by keeping the ticket price at the same level as last year! Take that Michele Bullock! Yes, that’s right, today’s comedy and yesterday’s prices. No deposit, no interest!”

Biggins, who confesses to writing that blurb (does he have to do everything, he asks?) also promises that none of the jokes have been written by ChatGPT with “no jokes outsourced to PWC”. “Completely gluten-free, suitable for lactose intolerant and no animals were harmed during the production process.”

I’m in hysterics just reading his blurb, so I expect to be rolling in the aisles with everybody else come March. So, what can we look forward to this time around?

Well, US President Joe Biden is in the mix, played by Forsythe.

“Drew likes to push the boundaries and he well and truly pushes them in this sketch,” Biggins says. “It is a bit unkind but we do go for these tropes. Biden has actually achieved a lot more than many people think.”

But it’s his doddering nature that presumably makes him good cannon fodder for The Wharf Revue team. Of course, the other side of the coin is Donald Trump.

“We do have Trump in the show,” Biggins promises. “He and Rudy Giuliani are in a sketch together. In it they have broken out of a high-security prison and they are on the run in the everglades.” That sounds promising.

King Charles, who made an appearance last year, will be back again.

“King Charles returns and has a dream involving his ex-wife,” Biggins says, which is tantalising in itself, but more so because it will be a show that’s “a little darker and more philosophical than last year”.

Bring it on.

The Wharf Revue: Pride in Prejudice plays the Playhouse, QPAC, March 5-9

qpac.com.au

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