“FIFTY years of comedy talent in one night only” is the promise of the “ANU Law Revue”, soon to take the stage at The Playhouse.

I can hardly wait. Ever since I saw a bunch of law students strip off and throw their “briefs” at the audience, it’s been a favourite night out, always top heavy with talent and wit.

The 50th anniversary celebrations have been going on since late September, when ANU fresher law students performed their 2022 revue, “Pingu Goes to Law School: Moot Moot”, to packed houses at Canberra Rep Theatre.

You can fairly bet the tickets will go like hotcakes for the bigger show, where new and old performers will relive content from across the 50 years, but the crew are displaying a fair bit of chutzpah when they say: “Come see the show that humbly submits to the court that it is number one across revues nationwide.” 

I caught up with final-year international relations student Laura Johnston who, with law student and president of the ANU’s Italian Society Margherita Dall’Occo-Vaccaro, is directing the show. 

“We think the first ‘Law Revue’ was in 1972,” Johnston says, explaining that the performance at The Playhouse will feature “six-ish” sketches from each decade and a reimagined sketch from 1972, played by the 2022 cohort of newbies surrounded by “Law Revue” alumni.

Most sketches have been sourced from past law revues but it wasn’t easy, for as Johnston and Dall’Occo-Vaccaro embarked on the progress, she says: “Our brains fried… we started this process, but we found it insane.”

Not to worry. After a cry for help, two brilliant former law students and revue alumni stepped in as researchers and scriptwriters. 

ANU law and international relations student Isabelle Lee, who moonlights as a prizewinning hip-hop dancer, and China expert Bolwen Fu, sourced the old skits, adjusted them where needed, then structured the whole revue into a tight 90-minute script which, when I speak to Johnston, is ready to be ticked off for production.

“We couldn’t have done it without them,” Johnston says.

So, what’s on the schedule for The Playhouse? 

“For the opening number, we are trying to subvert what happens in a revue,” she says. 

“We are doing a Gregorian Chant full of fake Latin legal terms, then finishing off with Bon Jovi’s ‘It’s my life’.”

One of the nostalgic items will be an original singing-playing performance by “The Two Stephens” – two genuine former law professors who were a comedy duo in the ’80s.

Their identities? Stephen Bottomley, former dean and emeritus professor in ANU commercial law and Stephen Parker, former vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra and guitarist in the UC band, The Hip Replacements.

Of course, the “Law Revue”, just like any uni revue, is largely comprised of spoofs, so they found a sendup of The Wiggles from 2011, which they had to change a bit to move with the times, but which is still very funny.

A specifically legal skit is “Legal Lawyers at Law 2 – This Time it’s Litigious”, and the show will also feature a sketch from their annual Christmas charity show, “The Christmas Revue”, to show people how the “Law Revue” has branched out.

By popular demand, the showstopper will be an “anti-joke” skit called “Dog”. That’s where the joke-teller is delivering something that’s intentionally not funny, relying on the baffled reaction from audiences. This involves the entire cast and it certainly doesn’t have a punchline. That would spoil the anti-joke.

Because the revue aims at bringing back the past, they have been busy sourcing genuine authentic costumes kept at home in the closet by former revue performers.

“It’s really cool what costumes have been kept, and I think it shows how much people have loved being in the revue,” Johnston says. 

“ANU Law Revue”, The Playhouse, Thursday, October 20.

News all day, every day at CityNews.com.au.