Funny How A Memory Fault Works

Sun Herald

Sunday September 2, 2007

Jason Blake

DEEPLY OFFENSIVE

& UTTERLY UNTRUE

CarriageWorks

Until September 8

Tickets $25-$30

Bookings 1300 438 849

Critic's rating 8/10

VERSION 1.0's Deeply Offensive & Utterly Untrue is a sharp, mischievously funny precis of the Cole inquiry into the Australian Wheat Board's use of kickbacks to secure Iraqi wheat contracts. It derives its title from a letter sent to The Sydney Morning Herald by one of Version 1.0's regular whipping boys, Alexander Downer.

In response to an opinion piece on the AWB scandal the miffed Foreign Minister wrote: "Your editorial suggesting the Australian Government went to war in Iraq to protect its wheat market is deeply offensive and utterly untrue."

True, the inquiry failed to shed any light on the extent to which the Federal Government was turning a blind eye to AWB's sanctions-busting activities. But what the 64-day inquiry did confirm - other than a particularly contagious outbreak of white collar amnesia - was that AWB executives had filtered $290million of bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime disguised as trucking fees.

An 8500-page transcript of legal nitpickery and blame-shifting might not seem the most promising of source texts but Version 1.0 keeps the focus tight and has a great eye for comic potential. Scenes are wittily edited and sharply animated with Stephen Klinder, Jane Phegan, Yana Taylor, Kym Vercoe and David Williams playing a cast of characters including Prime Minister John Howard, deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, Downer (seen via a live video feed quaffing a red in the CarriageWorks bar), and a number of smirking, squirming AWB types.

Adhering to the maxim that it's often better to show than tell, Version 1.0 trawls the media archives and devises witty, theatrically powerful illustrations - living diagrams if you like - to get the information across. The money trail is illustrated with spilled grains from split bags of wheat suspended from ropes and a hastily drawn world map. A video camera records a live mouse circling a baited trap while a witness is cross-examined. The iconic happy snap of the shirtless, pistol-pointing Trevor Flugge is strikingly recreated by Kim Vercoe and the AWB executive's extraordinary lapses of memory are orchestrated into a noisy fugue of "I don't knows" and "I can't recalls".

Sean Bacon's sophisticated video mash-ups and live feeds from cameras placed around the studio space lend a documentary feel to the piece, immersing the audience in images and sound bites.

Deeply Offensive & Utterly Untrue isn't as provocative as Version 1.0's previous inquiry-based show, A Certain Maritime Incident, an indictment of the Government's sly handling of the "children overboard" tragedy.

After all, the notion that a corporation might act in its own best interests rather than respect international law shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. But it does show the company at its best - mischievous, righteous and inventive.

Most theatre companies aim to give us a good night out. Version 1.0 goes the extra mile: it entertains, informs and then contributes to the betterment of our democracy.

© 2007 Sun Herald

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