Cover Image: Jonathan Biggins embodies former Prime Minister Paul Keating with razor-sharp satire and theatrical precision. Photo supplied.

The Gospel According to Paul
Black Swan State Theatre Company
Heath Ledger Theatre, until August 3.

I’ve never understood the point of impersonators, especially as entertainers. Some are witty and cleverly disguised under makeup and wigs, yet their dogged obsession with ‘being’ someone else seems to boil down to a one-liner: ‘Look at how like him/her I am!’

This was not remotely my reaction to Jonathan Biggins playing Paul Keating inThe Gospel According to Paul.  This is no mere impersonation of our former prime minister but a complex inquisition of Keating the flesh-and-blood man. Nor is it an exercise in hero worship – Biggins, as a veteran of many Wharf Revue political skits, wields his satirical scalpel with such exquisite skill that every incision is a revelation. You laugh both with Keating and at him, thus avoiding a cringeworthy hagiography dressed up with witty barbs.  

Perth has waited a long time for The Gospel’s arrival – Biggins has been performing this solo show since early 2019. Perhaps that’s why his stage presence is relaxed and masterful and Aarne​ Neeme​’s direction is finely-honed. Designer Mark Thompson and lighting designer Verity Hampson place Keating in an elegant sitting room adorned with French paintings, a mantle of antique clocks and a stack of classical music LPs. 

That Biggins hardly resembles his subject is irrelevant – Keating’s essence is conveyed by a raised eyebrow, shrugged shoulders and hand gestures that fastidiously adjust a cuff or despatch an enemy with one swipe. But of course, it’s all about the words, a 90-minute monologue shaped meticulously around Keating’s own genius for le mot juste. Who else could capture the image of Kevin Rudd as ‘Tin Tin meets the Rain Man’? Or observe that Tony Abbott ‘thinks Misogyny was his teacher in third grade.’

The boy from Bankstown takes us through his elevation from Mahler-loving teenager and Labor stalwart to his election into federal parliament, his ascent into Gough Whitlam’s ministry, his stratospheric rise as Bob Hawke’s Treasurer, his scarring climb to the political summit as prime minister, and the inevitable Shakespearean descent of even the brightest summiteer into political obscurity.  

We know that trajectory, or at least every baby boomer does. But even millennials far less familiar with Australian political history will find Keating’s witty, acerbic observations still startlingly topical – post-Voice referendum, hearing snatches of his stirring Redfern speech sends shivers down the spine. Keating’s prescient bid to focus on our place in Asia has barely been fulfilled. And in a state whose fate depends on multinational exploitation of our mineral resources, why indeed did Australia not follow Norway’s example of nationalising the source of its wealth?

Some of these big ideas had me stuck like a bug on Velcro, wishing I could hear more but soon carried away on the next tide of invective. Biggins’s portrayal never descends into a lecture –Keating’s transformative economic reforms are covered off in a vaudeville song-and-dance act that you suspect Keating would secretly have loved. 

Admittedly Keating’s less attractive traits – sexism in a male-dominated cabinet, a punitive refugee policy he airily dismisses as intended to be ‘only temporary’ –  get a light gloss. But like renowned British playwright Alan Bennett, whose monologues both skewer and cherish the imperfections of the Midlands folk that Bennett grew up among, Biggins weaves in moments of self-doubt amid Keating’s hubristic belief in his own greatness. A lingering caress across the back of an empty chair says it all when he ponders the cost of politics on his personal life.

A critic observed that The Gospel According to Paul never quite escapes its sketch show origins. I disagree – it is one of the most richly complex, expertly delivered pieces of stage writing I’ve encountered. It was worth the wait. 

The Gospel According to Paul is showing until 3 August.

For more information and bookings, visit:
https://blackswantheatre.com.au/season-2025/the-gospel-according-to-paul