Dame Edna tired and shagged out after a long career

My Gorgeous Life

Dame Edna Everage

Canberra Theatre

Opening night, September 17, 2019

by Tony Magee

IN a presentation filled with incoherent mumblings and ramblings, Dame Edna Everage slogged it out on the stage of the Canberra Theatre last night, subjecting her audience to two hours of boredom.

Clearly under-rehearsed, there were a few clever quips and moments of laughter, but on the whole it was a tiring and monotonous drag (no pun intended) from start to finish.

Aided or sometimes disabled by historic video footage, mostly with the voices completely out of sync with the mouths that were speaking on the screen, technical disasters and difficulties made it even more impossible to fathom the point of this sad venture.

The only saving grace was the presence of the Steinway D concert grand, which always makes a stage look graceful and beautiful and the excellent piano accompaniments and linking music from pianist and creative director Andrew Ross.

In fact, Ross was continually bailing her out when she failed to hear or comprehend comments which she herself invited from the audience. The poor old thing has gone deaf.

During the first act, the Dame looked like she could collapse at any moment, was breathing hard and had an obvious croak in her throat.

I think the whole room was willing her, desperately, to have a sip of water from the glass on the piano, but she didn’t, preferring instead to keep coughing and spluttering through most of the act.

Indigestion also made an appearance. One wondered whether she momentarily thought she was that old Cultural Attaché for the Arts, Sir Les Patterson.

The projected sets were excellent and of very high resolution, which made for some colourful and momentarily interesting side-tracks.

I was hoping for something new and exciting, fresh ideas, combined with the stinging, brutal wit and intelligence we all expect and deserve from the Dame. Instead the same old routines - Madge replaced by her long lost younger sister, couches for chats, the picking out of people in the front rows and the tired and hackneyed “where are you from darling?”.

Worse still were the embarrassing attempts to solicit an encore, the Dame being gently chaperoned off the stage by Andrew Ross, as she cupped her ear hoping for screams of “more”. One or two people did, as the stage went black and the house lights came up. The rest made a hasty departure for the exists.

Page seven in the program, contains a large photo of Edna, with the caption “Why am I doing this? I don’t need the money.” We are indeed wondering.

Perhaps this show is saveable, with a massive re-write, after this Canberra “try-out” season.