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The Gospel According to Paul Final term. Final chance. Final tickets.

4 – 23 Jun 2024

In the Playhouse

Theatre

Australia’s master of political satire, Jonathan Biggins is Paul Keating — visionary, reformer and rabble-rouser. Due to popular demand, this unmissable one-man comedy is returning to office for a final term following a critically acclaimed sell-out season.

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“Biggins almost out-Keaters Keating” Crikey

In a hilarious, insightful and poignant portrayal of Paul Keating, The Gospel According to Paul tells the story of the man that – as he tells it – single-handedly shaped contemporary Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald claims you’ll “spend most of the time helpless with laughter at the barbed wit coupled with the completeness of the performance”.

Jonathan Biggins, co-creator and star of Sydney Theatre Company’s The Wharf Revue, paints a sympathetic but uncompromising picture of one of Australia’s most compelling and enigmatic leaders. 

Showcasing Keating’s eviscerating wit, rich rhetoric and ego the size of Everest, Biggins distils down the essence of Keating —  visionary, reformer, rabble-rouser, and the Bankstown boy who treated economics as an artform, demanded we confront the wrongs of our colonial past and who quickly realised that to get things done in political life it’s better to be needed than loved. 

Beyond the canny impersonation, Biggins asks the questions; is today’s lack of leadership a product of our times? And what can we learn from this singular politician? 

Presented by Sydney Opera House in association with Soft Thread Enterprises.

Biggins’ finest work

Sydney Morning Herald

Hilariously funny, astute, inspiring show

Limelight

A rare treat

Stagenoise

Your sneak peak at sharp wit you can expect

Watch the trailer

For me; a touch of irony, some hint of self-deprecation and the fun of throwing Liberals around like rag dolls – saved one from the deadening experience of dealing with earnest careerists, corner-cutters and consummate under-achievers.

Fantasy and imagination were the sole liberators - influences the great bulk of the colleagues could neither measure, catalogue, box or most of all, emulate.

Peter Pan-like, flying above, around and through the jostling scrum, while leaving behind a trail of gold for ordinary folk and true believers was always my idea of what the job was about. And doing it all with as much mocking and hilarity as one could reasonably get away with.

Jonathan earnestly seeks to do me justice and has sharply picked up upon the compelling trait of needing to do good – the trait that has always electrified me – given it all a purpose.

A note from the Former Prime Minister Paul Keating

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