Gone Girls, REVIEW July 28, 2022 ***

THEATRE

Written by Patrick Livesey & Annabel Larcombe

Gasworks Arts Park, until August 6, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: *** (3)

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Sunday 31 July and in print on Monday Aug 1 2022. Click this link Gone Girls

Gone Girls-Patrick Livesey, Annabel Larcombe- Image by Jacinta Oaten

Gone Girls is a political satire about the successes, failures and rivalry of Julia Gillard (Patrick Livesey) and Julie Bishop (Annabel Larcombe), two high-achieving, Australian female politicians and, in a fortuitous confluence of events, it opens as the new federal parliament boasts a record number of women representatives.

 

Gillard and Bishop’s political careers burned brightly for a time then flamed out; Gillard occupied shadow and government ministries and enjoyed a short-lived period as Labor Prime Minister, while Bishop served in Coalition ministries and as Lib Deputy Leader but failed in her bid for the Prime Ministership.

 

Written by Livesey and Larcombe and co-directed by Wil King, the play makes us ponder whether having more female parliamentarians can lead to a female PM if two such skilful candidates were unable to attain or hold the top job. Is there no end in sight for the political boys’ club?

 

Gone Girls charts Gillard and Bishop’s careers from 1998 when both entered federal parliament, tracking the passage of time with dates projected on the vast, upstage wall. For the first hour, the show combines simple, parodic depictions of the pair up to the recent past, intercut with video footage of their parliamentary bickering and banter, and voice overs of the real Gillard and Bishop. The inclusion of Gillard’s memorable anti-misogyny speech directed at Tony Abbott is an inspired and popular highlight.

 

The last 30 minutes morph into a bizarre, clever and funny ride into a futuristic, Terminator-style Australia in which Gillard is a heroic resistance leader, ScoMo is “Evil Jesus”, vegan Penny Wong outlives everyone, Michaelia Cash clones herself and Peter Dutton suffers a terrible fate.

 

Gone Girls includes witty, well-informed political commentary, keen observations about the women’s differences and similarities, and a cunning underlying narrative about political ambitions thwarted because of their gender.

 

Livesey embodies Gillard’s quirky physicality, brittle voice and highlights her vulnerability with frequent, poignant references to the vile insults and bullying she endured during her political period. Larcombe captures the essence of Bishop, her ambition, acerbic tongue, robotic manner and alarming death stare, although the role cries out for a parade of glitzy outfits to parody Bishop’s reputation as a fashionista.

 

Although the script and production have been overhauled recently, Gone Girls would benefit from dramaturgical intervention and stronger direction: the staging is too static, needing more physicality and fewer talking heads, the production requires a more intimate stage and more effective set design, and the wildly differing styles of the two halves require fusing into a coherent whole.

 

Despite its shortcomings, Gone Girls effectively satirises, celebrates, criticises and sympathises with Gillard and Bishop and cynically suggests a long road ahead before Australia sees another female PM.

 

By Kate Herbert