Hubris & Humiliation

Playwright Lewis Treston was so curious about camp he studied it at the University of Queensland, along with how to give a queer reading to Jane Austin’s novels.  

He ended up with a PhD.  And a very funny, very camp, new play about a young Brisbane man leaving his bankrupt bogan family and coming to Sydney to find a wealthy husband. 

Roman Delo is perfectly cast as our hero, Elliot, whose honesty and more domestic gay dreams proves foreign amongst the campy froth and bubble of Sydney.  But all Treston’s characters prove to be equally searching for love and marriage; it’s a truth which underpins their outrageousness with an appealing humanity.  And topically everyone has a sexual identity which swings wildly, until the last act gets all the matches right.

So Elliot kisses goodbye his secret childhood love, Warren (Ryan Panizza), to stay in Vaucluse with his fruity gay Uncle Roland (Andrew MacFarlane), who matches Elliott to an a sexy if arrogant British opera director (again the enigmatic Panizza).   The Opera House is just through the window of Roland’s mansion whose elegant walls are artfully reused throughout by designer Isobel Hudson.

Elliot’s sister (a forthright Melissa Kahraman) arrives, leaving her simple-hearted boyfriend Brendan Battersby (Mathew Cooper) for a Berlin-based, feminist artist, (Henrietta Enyonam Amevor), who excels in three roles). But in Berlin, Juki drops the sister as too “bogan”.  Then Elliott’s tough-talking Mum also arrives with new plot twists (superbly overacted by Celia Ireland).

Dean Bryant delivers an inventive, crispy paced comedy conducting his ensemble through froth and bubble of Treston’s witty dialogue. Some of it is garbled and there’s too much face-pulling, but it’s a riot and a tender one at that.  And the penultimate ball scene spoof of Jane Austin’s words is masterful. 

Pride and Prejudice gives way to Hubris & Humiliation, but it’s a happy end. Hudson’s character costumes are a particular delight and Alexander Berlage’s lighting and Mathew Frank’s sound give smart punctuation, especially with a disco start and climax.   

Martin Portus

Images (from top): Ryan Panizza and Roman Delo; Andrew McFarlane and Ryan Panizza; Henrietta Enyonam Amevor, Roman Delo and Andrew McFarlane; Melissa Kahraman, Andrew McFarlane, Roman Delo, Henrietta Enyonam Amevor, Mathew Cooper and Ryan Panizza; Roman Delo, Henrietta Enyonam Avemor and Ryan Panizza in Sydney Theatre Company’s Hubris & Humiliation. Photographer: Prudence Upton