Law Revue a 'glorious conflation of low and high brow humour'

The 2016 Sydney Law Revue, Royal Commission: Impossible was once again a stellar amalgamation of critical humour, tongue-in-cheek banter and creative musical numbers.

This year’s title, whilst being criticised by the UNSW Law Revue for copying it’s 1983 title, managed to do the university proud with a series of skits, music and quips.

Producers, Joseph Baine and Brendon Francis led a cast of law students through two acts which explored the intricacies of Australian politics and culture as well as some pun based skits and niche law references (I didn’t get all the references despite studying law. Perhaps I’m falling behind RIP). The directors, Ellen Yates and Kieran Hoyle, too helped to patch together punny vignettes varying from low-chuckle humour to robust cackle-worthy material.

From the opening act, Anna Della Marta’s sultry alto tones introduced the audience to a suite of euphonic musical pastiches, satirising cultural phenomena such as the current American political climate and Brexit. Hayden Tonazzi’s spiced up the night with ISIS’s debut onto the West End — sewing jihadist sentiment and seminal hits of the British musical stage together with his rich and roaring tenor pipes. Props also go to Diana Reid’s slapstick facial impressions that led the audience to bellowing laughter in the incredible audiovisual displays this year.

The band’s jazzy rendition of various contemporary top 40 hits, and childhood bangerz also provided appealing transitions between skits, and a quirky background to many great musical numbers.

The props, costumes and choreography all indicated that hundreds of hours have gone into this production, and paid off. From disco numbers to classic waltz’s, Law Revue *has something for everybody* (cringes).

Such a production was not limited to an elite intelligentsia, as the revue was able to resonate with the masses with some well-tempered poo humour (poomour if you will). No doubt this glorious conflation of high and low brow references can be attributed to head writer, Luca Moretti, and a talented cast of writers.

All in all, Law Revue was a fun, light-hearted (though at times heavy and awkwardly non-PC) production, that made me laugh quite a lot. I highly recommend you check it out.
 

Law Revue Royal Commission: Impossible is currently being performed at the Seymour Centre until August 20th. Tickets are available here.