Review: Deeply Offensive and Utterly Untrue

Deeply Offensive and Utterly Untrue by version 1.0
Carriage Works & Performance Space
Friday 24 August 2007

As published in The Daily Telegraph.

Remember that little scandal at the beginning of last year involving wheat? Something about a Wheat Board monopoly, a lot of money, Saddam Hussein, a military invasion and a trucking company?

The Wheat for Weapons scandal is the latest subject of version 1.0’s production Deeply Offensive and Utterly Untrue.

It sounds dry, but this production is nothing short of an exhilarating and superbly didactic piece of political theatre that shines a theatrical magnifying glass on what happened during the scandal.

Version 1.0 is renowned for its use of public inquiry and politics to mastermind theatrical pieces and has previously covered the Iraq War and the Children Overboard affair.

In this production performers (Stephen Klinder, David Williams, Jane Phegan, Yana Taylor and Kym Vercoe) take on a wide range of characters, including the Prime Minister, Alexander Downer, Mark Vaile, Australian Wheat Board executives, Commissioner Cole and others involved in the inquiry.

With video projection, "live" hook-ups and moving footage (brilliantly co-ordinated by Sean Bacon), the group plays out the events leading up to and including the Cole Inquiry that investigated how the AWB filtered $290 million dollars of kickbacks to Hussein’s regime.

They whisk the audience on a theatrical journey from the wheat fields of the Outback to the commission, to Hussein’s palaces and to the press conferences held by politicians.

By effectively utilising the large theatre at Carriage Works, the group has created its finest piece of theatre yet. Not only are the facts around the affair clearly stated but the theatrical elements employed are inventive, physical and sophisticated.

It would be easy to get bogged down in the subject matter but this group has developed a deft grasp of political theatre in this country.

Deeply Offensive and Utterly Untrue is a very important production that holds a lucid mirror up to our democratic processes.

Image: David Williams and Kym Vercoe in Deeply Offensive and Utterly Untrue.