A comic look at a state in serious trouble

By Bronwen Beechey

MELBOURNE -- Rod Quantock has made a huge contribution to Australian comedy. He wrote and performed in the ground-breaking TV series Australia, You're Standing In It, opened and ran Melbourne's first live comedy venue, the Comedy Cafe, and was a founding board member of the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

This year's Comedy Festival included a welcome return to the stage by Quantock in Sunrise Boulevard, now returning in an expanded and updated form at the Victorian Trades Hall -- an appropriate venue for a show that takes a hard look at the current state of Victoria and the prevailing ideology of privatisation and casino culture.

Quantock describes the show as “a mono-media extravaganza” in which he examines, with the aid of a large blackboard and chalk, issues such as “money, power, greed and stupidity”. The title, of course refers to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard, brought to Melbourne by Jeff Kennett at great expense, and which epitomises the Victorian government's preference for tacky and extravagant spectacles at the expense of basic social services.

Quantock has long been a supporter of progressive causes and recent events have strengthened his political convictions. “I was asked by Save Albert Park to speak at one of their rallies, and I was actually there the day that [the Grand Prix Corporation] sent workers in to chop the trees down. When you're involved with people who are extremely passionate and well-informed about the issues, you can't help but see the problems and feel a sense of urgency about doing something about them.”

Sunrise Boulevard may tour interstate after its current season finishes -- while recognising that much of the show is specific to Victoria, Quantock says there is plenty of material out there to replace it with.

Sunrise Boulevard begins on June 19 at Trades Hall, corner Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton, at 8pm. It will run Tuesday to Saturday for a limited season. Bookings through BASS.

This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page.
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