IS it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Julia Poppins, or rather The Wharf Revue’s Amanda Bishop, soaring over the top of Parliament house as she prepares for the revue’s latest – “Red Wharf: Beyond the Rings of Satire,” opening at the Playhouse tonight. 

The indefatigable graphic designer at the Canberra Theatre Centre, Greer Versteeg, has been snapping away again and also caught Ms Bishop/Julia castigating an umbrella  handle in the shape  of Alan Jones with the words, “you can do better than that, Alan” in  response to a voice-over of his famous “chaff bag” crack.

If you consider that the script was written quite a while ago, he has done better than that.

This year the team is made up of Bishop, Drew Forsythe, Phillip Scott (seen at the space-age piano in the background), and new recruit Josh Quong Tart, all embarking on a Space Odyssey as they attempt to probe civilisation’s finest moments.

The “archive of human endeavour” will include “The Same Sex Marriage of Figaro”, the wanderings of Foreign Minister Bob Carr; the fall of theGardenofEarthly Delights; the trial of the heretic Timothy Flannery ofPaduabefore the Collegium of Rome and “The Peter Slipper Handicap.”

And that’s only the start of it.

“Red Wharf: Beyond the Rings of Satire,” October 23 to 27 at The Playhouse, bookings to 6275 2700 or www.canberraticketing.com.au