By Celia Harvey
Thoracic Park—directed by Madeleine Hall—was an examination into the dark minds of medical students: the good, the bad and the hilarious. The humour was suitably off-colour, edgy and anatomical. It was a fun night out for a good cause, with all profits going towards The Melbourne Period Project, which provides sanitary products for homeless women, non-binary people and trans men.
From a class on mindlessness to Christian women in Southern USA starting a holy water cartel, the Revue covered a variety of topics with something for everyone, yet one could not help but wish that there were more jokes drawing on their medical knowledge and experiences. References to the University of Melbourne’s copyright act spiel and the Lancet left the audience in stitches. It’s clear that had they utilised their unique perspective and community more when creating the performance, their friends, family and colleagues would likely have been highly receptive to it.
The Jurassic Park theme (as played on a recorder) was bone chilling, with toy dinosaurs marching across the screen before a MasterChef-esque opening credits introduced the production team. It quickly demonstrated one of the show’s strengths which was its excellent use of multimedia and seamless transition between screen and stage for different sketches.
The Revue was at its best in its shorter sketches. These were tightly paced, with multimedia presentations effortlessly melding into each other without there ever being a dead stage or overlong blackout. The stage manager, Hannah Vuong, and rest of technical crew is to be commended for this. The performers were versatile, with consistently high energy and great comedic timing throughout the show. Their chemistry was palpable and you could see that they were having fun in their performance. The songs showcased the many talents of the cast; these med students double as strong singers, dancers and witty lyricists! ‘Bacterial Girl’ was a standout, though all the songs were polished and entertaining with great choreography by Rebecca Holmes. It was also helpful to have the lyrics displayed so that the audience could fully appreciate the score: making it more accessible to people who are hard of hearing and allowing the audience to feel absorbed in the songs. The band (led by music director Ian Coyukiat) played excellently throughout the show and it was exciting to see music so well incorporated into the humour and plot. The band was given many opportunities to show off their chops in instrumental sections and not just as accompanists. Regarding the short sketches, the videos were particularly well made with punchy timing—‘Mothers Milk’, ‘Armalade’ and ‘Smooth Brain Energy’ deserve a special mention. The best sketches were those that incorporated medical humour or pushed the envelope with risqué jokes. The Mindlessness class, ‘Wrong Batman’, ‘Graphic Design is my Passion’ and ‘Blessed Be The Water’ were some of the strongest and funniest sketches.
While the stage design was mostly bare bones, as is suitable for a revue, the highly inventive props, backdrops and costumes (designed by Ester Paykin and Jessica Walsh) provided a pop of flavour and variety that worked marvellously, such as the massive breasts that were carried by one person each to physically fight each other in ‘Trials and TITilations’.
Lighting (designed by Phineas Tupper-Creed) and sound (designed by Eleanor Norman, Vincent Tan and Tish Peart) was also used to cracking effect, whether for comedic purposes or for interesting staging.
My biggest bone to pick with the show would be the ‘Musicapocalypse’, the longest sketch in the show. Although it had many great songs, punchlines and gags, the characters and material were ultimately not strong enough to sustain its length, leading to a rather fractured result. This sketch showed that while parodies of Scott Morrison, The Sims, infamous Harry Potter fanfiction, Twilight and Glee may be hilarious components, it is challenging to form a cohesive storyline featuring all of these without quite a few awkward gaps between jokes. This sketch was a skeleton that needed to be either fleshed out more, or cut down into smaller sections to better suit the otherwise fun, fast paced timing of the rest of the revue.
It is safe to say that our future doctors and health professionals also make excellent actors, comedians, musicians, singers and dancers—all of whom understand that laughter is the best medicine.
Medleys The Med Revue’s Thoracic Park ran September 15th to 17th in the new Union Theatre.
Celia Harvey (she/her) is an Arts student based in Naarm/Melbourne majoring in English and Theatre Studies.
The Dialog 