It’s hard to believe that the Wharf Revue, that venerable institution of political satire, has been running since 2000. It seems like a mere 25 years since Drew Forsythe, Phillip Scott and I (with the sterling initial help of Linda Nagle) first put on a show. The late-night experiment was performed on the set of another play at the Wharf Theatre to a small – well, ‘crowd’ is not the right word – shall we say ‘gathering’ of satire devotees. Little did we think that the sequels would largely consume our creative lives for the next quarter of a century.

It almost didn’t begin at all, as the board of the Sydney Theatre Company was reluctant to greenlight the project, fearing it would lose money. Ha! 

Members of the Wharf Revue on stage, dressed up as recognisable Australian politicians.

Left to right: David Whitney as Peter Dutton, Drew Forsythe as Richard Marles, Mandy Bishop as Tanya Plibersek and Jonathan Biggins as Anthony Albanese in the 2023 Wharf Revue Pride in Prejudice. Photo © Vishal Pandey

Thankfully, the company’s then Artistic Director Robyn Nevin had a little more faith, and after...