WITH an election just around the corner, it’s not all that surprising that Shortis and Simpson have got together with political journalist Karen Middleton to put on a show.

A part of the series “Under the Influence” – several months ago we reviewed their Braidwood concert with former Seeker Keith Potger – the satirical duo have come up with a format where their musical influences overlap with a guest’s and will bring in their own stories.

Why else, they asked rhetorically, would Moya Simpson be singing in Vietnamese, Bosnian and Bulgarian?

What is less well-known is that Middleton, although a familiar television identity who’s also done Q&As for Chris Endrey’s “In Canberra Tonight”, is a seasoned theatre tragic, and one who got a grounding here in Canberra.

When I catch up with her she seems fairly sanguine about the possibility of a clash between their shows and the time when the election will be called, even though “Under the Influence” will be at the end of Budget Week. “Good timing,” she says, tongue in cheek.

Middleton can always be seen at theatre opening nights around town and she reports that she’s been passionate about the art form both at high school and at the University of Canberra. 

As well, back in the mid-1980s, she did a short summer school at the Canberra Theatre where she met the late theatre identity David Branson.

“I did a bit of theatre with David, but when I started working, there was less time for that and it dropped away,” she says.

Not entirely.

“I helped Chris Endrey with ‘In Canberra Tonight’ doing some interviews and I really enjoyed that.”

She’s also sung for friends’ weddings, two in Australia including that of journos Lenore Taylor and Paul Daley and one in New York City, where she beat the movie “Love Actually”, by jumping out of the congregation to sing the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love”. 

Once up in the House, she was part of the a cappella group The House Howlers, a bunch of press gallery journalists who became regulars at the Mid-Winter Ball at Parliament House. They survived for more than a decade, then underwent a hiatus that is about to be broken at this year’s National Folk Festival. 

It was through the Howlers that she met John Shortis and Moya Simpson, who were working with the other well-known vocal group, The Shiny Bum Singers. 

About a year ago, the satirical duo contacted Middleton and they started talking about a new show based on a clever idea of mixing music that had a role in their guest artist’s life with their own music.

She’s very excited about the upcoming performance but says, “it’s quite exposing and I’m a bit nervous”.

From her teens, Middleton had an ongoing love of musical theatre, so audiences can expect some Abba and “Grease” and things like that. And given that she travelled three times as a journalist to Afghanistan and has been a significant advocate for Afghans wanting to flee the country in the past year, she’ll be singing one of Fred Smith’s songs from his “Dust of Uruzgan” album. 

She, like Smith, was there when Australia lost some personnel and will sing his “Sapper’s Lullaby”, the story of which took place on one of her trips.

That sounds sombre, but Middleton assures me that “this show has a lot of light, although there are some reflective moments in the storytelling”.

She says: “Moya and John have done a brilliant job to weave in their stories in an amazing set of crossovers, where they seem to have been going through similar things… this contributes to the layers of the show.”

“Under the Influence with Karen Middleton,” Smith’s Alternative, 9.30pm, April 1, book at smithsalternative.com

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