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GODZONE
Presented by:
Melbourne Theatre
Company
Reviewed 10th Dec
09
Reviewer: Adam Rafferty
 Who
can forget Max Gillie’s classic sketches on Bob Hawke and Andrew
Peacock in the 80’s? Hawke’s ear tugging, arching eyebrows and of
course the classic “aaarrrrr” were perfect parody. More recently it
was Howard’s drooping bottom lip, his wobbly ‘r’s, and those hairy
caterpillars on his brow. Since Kevin Rudd became our prime minister
there have been few well-judged takeoffs of his idiosyncrasies, with
the single exception perhaps of Paul McCarthy’s Double Take
lampoons. It’s unfortunate then that due to Guy Rundle’s ‘one-joke’
scripting of his caricature, Gillies’ attempt to encapsulate the man
in Godzone isn’t likely to enter the annals of classic parody
either.
Using a satire
on last year’s 2020 Summit that is the ‘Godzone’ as its structure,
Gillies as Mr Rudd introduces a range of
‘speakers’ before running off-stage for a speedy make-up, wig and
costume change into each of those characters. First to follow Ruddy
are a relatively obscure pair, making up the total of the live first
act caricatures – Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt and political
author and activist Christopher Hitchens. Regular readers of Bolt’s
columns will find Rundle’s interpretation of the man to be a version
with far more cutting wit than Bolt himself, while those unaware of
the writer’s work are left with just this character’s observations
of left-wing policy to enjoy.
 Students
of politics and perhaps viewers of Lateline are likely to be aware
of Christopher Hitchens’ support of interventionist foreign policy
in regards to the Middle East. Those less absorbed by international
political observers are likely to find this character’s tale of
being rogered by Arabs, after meeting Osama Bin Laden halfway up the
Hindu Kush, to be bewildering to say the least. Far too absorbed in
his own cleverness, Rundle lost half the audience with this puzzling
scene and left us far from energised for what remained after the
interval.
Thankfully,
the far more familiar shock of Julia’s Gillard’s red hair ushered in
the second act, along with the evening’s most amusing and witty
observation on the role of women in the current Australian cabinet.
In what is an admirably short time to have prepared scripts,
Gillies’ meagre impersonation of Gillard is followed by a more
forgivably slight impersonation of Tony Abbott. With his
well-publicised extreme right-wing views, the new leader of the
Coalition proves already to be a ripe target for lampooning and
Rundle has made good use of the opportunity in such a short
turnaround time.
 Malcolm
Turnbull is relegated to a mildly amusing video presentation amongst
the many that break up each ‘speaker’, allowing Gillies time to put
on another overly exaggerated false nose. These video sketches
feature Gillies in a wider range of caricatures including Noel
Pearson, Gerard Henderson and Joe Hockey, but vary in quality - from
an amusing sketch of Barnaby Joyce as a used car salesman to a truly
bizarre, hellish envisioning of the Liberal party headquarters. The
most amusing (and politically incorrect) sketch comes amongst
‘sponsor advertisements’ for an Indian Restaurant slash educational
institution. However many of the video presentations had little more
production value than a homemade Powerpoint presentation or YouTube
clip – if this was intentional the irony is unclear.
 I
find this kind of production difficult to review as ‘theatre’. More
a stand-up routine combined with some pre-recorded television sketch
comedy, Godzone is not the sort of thing that I feel should
be part of the repertoire for our state’s premier theatre company.
When your setting is little more than a video screen and a lectern,
and your performer carries his script with him - regardless of the
fact he’s using two line-of-sight teleprompters – it’s hard to
compare this kind of production or performance with a standard
one-man play or other works of the MTC season.
Aidan
Fennessy’s direction is inert, therefore not bringing the piece
beyond its stand-up comedy structure. Nik Dorning’s prosthetic
makeup work goes some way towards transforming the 68 year-old
Gillies on stage, but is much more effective in the recorded pieces
where there has been time to get it right.
With his
ageing jaw line betraying his on-stage visual transformation into
the targets of this piece, it’s even more incumbent on Gillies to
hit the mark with his voice and demeanor. However most of the
caricatures amount to a single characteristic – Rudd is reduced to
air drawn in through pouted lips, while Gillard gets merely a few
drawled words to remind us all she’s from Altona.
If Rundle’s
script did more than simply ridicule Rudd’s clichéd use of
buzz-words, overly complicated jargon and woefully handled slang,
then perhaps Gillies would have a better chance of truly engaging
the audience. This disappointment was no better illustrated on
opening night than in the finale when Gillies’ Rudd returned and
attempted to rouse the audience into singing Kumbaya with him. The
resounding lack of enthusiasm killed the final attempt at humour for
the show, but sadly I fear it was pronounced dead about 90 minutes
beforehand.
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