Barry Humphries: Back with a Vengence

Comedy often depends on hearing the same lines or character constantly repeated. They may be off-the-planet but, for the joke to work, we need to be comfortable with the prankster and the conspiracy they weave.

This perhaps explains the incredible success of Barry Humphries, who is now back again after 50 years of constantly returning to Australian audiences. And yes, Dame Edna is that old.

She began life as a modest Melbourne housewife back in the 1950s. Les Patterson was conjured up later by Humphries in the 1970s, as a lewd and drunken cultural diplomat with a donger down to his knees. Humphries’s third great character to return, the nostalgic old digger Sandy Stone, is still in his armchair and flannel PJs but now has truly gone heavenly.

With his rambling yearning for Beryl and the certainties of the old days, with his gentle racism and suburban prejudices, Sandy is Humphries’s throwback to an easier Anglo Australia. Of all his characters, Sandy Stone is the one who I think most expresses Humphries’s world view.

Dame Edna though is his attack dog who takes it to the globe -“ and any audience member unfortunate enough to sit near the stage. Befitting Edna’s global fame, this even more glittery show features an amiable Andrew Ross on grand as well as a jazz ballet chorus of Ednaettes and toy boy TestEdnarones.

Edna sails through, as ever updating her ancient material with artful topical references. As an arch bitch she is still hilarious -“ full of stories from Buckingham Palace to dentist look-a-like, Kevin Rudd -“ but the attack dog has lost a few teeth, turned a little vanilla.

The second half is mostly unrewarding as Edna repeats formats of audience engagement evolved decades ago -“ dressing audience victims in funny clothes, ringing home live to their relations, throwing gladdies at us.

It seems we love it because her comedy never changes: it is as fixed and guaranteed as the world of Sandy Stone. Sure, I laughed heaps, but I also wondered about Humphries’s appeal to a younger audience, to the faces foreign to the likes of old Sandy. And why couldn’t Edna pick up just a few new tricks from all her global tours?

As for the return of Les Patterson, never have I laughed so much. He seemed fired with a far sharper, more contemporary wit than old Edna. See it if only for that filthy old codger.

Back with a Vengeance is at the Capital Theatre until 3 June.