Gasp!

Ben Elton’s Gasp! is a funny, satiric, non-PC laugh-fest.

Mining conglomerate Lockheart Industries are running out of things to rip out of the ground and come up with the idea to market ‘designer air.’ In an age where ‘designer water’ is marketed worldwide, it’s not such a stretch to imagine a scenario in the future where will have to pay to breathe.

Written as a series of one-liners, and delivered at breakneck speed, the play feels more like an extended TV sitcom, and with characters that are frequently cartoonish, one could be forgiven for thinking that’s what we were seeing with its non-PC content second-cousins to American Dad and Family Guy. Big mining is sent up ruthlessly with Gina Reinhart and Clive Palmer the butt of many a joke, but then Tony Abbott, Rupert Murdoch, the ABC, Aboriginals and Muslims also get their fair share of skewering.

It’s not a new work, having originally played in London in 1994 under the title of Gasping!, but Elton, now an Australian resident, has reworked and rewritten it for the local market with a sharp satirical eye.

Greg McNeil, as the crass and vulgar head honcho Chifley Lockheart, has a field day with the non-PC comedy and even gratuitously bares his arse for a cheap laugh. Damon Lockwood as Phillip, the wimpy Number 2 of the company and the one who comes up with the idea to market ‘designer air’, was hit-and-miss with his line delivery and looked uncomfortable with his (obviously choreographed) moves, while Steven Rooke as the ‘yes’ man Sandy spouted lots of corporate-speak but was never truly convincing as a company suit. Peggy, the asthmatic and plain girlfriend of Phillip, who sets the whole chains of events in motion when she has an asthma attack and needs hospitalization, was credibly played by Lucy Goleby, but the performance of the night was Caroline Brazier who was simply brilliant as bitchy advertising guru Kirsten. She not only landed every laugh, she had style, something the other performances lacked.

Christina Smith’s white set with its travelling panels and furniture and rear video projections was one of the stars of the production, likewise her costumes which were believably upper-echelon boardroom. Trent Suidgeest’s lighting and Tony Brumpton’s sound were spot on, with the latter’s use of songs with ‘air’ in the title a subtle satirical comment. Wesley Enoch’s direction was also hit-and-miss with multiple laughs being lost in a furious desire to deliver pace.

My first brush with Elton’s stage work was the award-winning London production of Popcorn in 1996 which I adored. Gasp! doesn’t quite live up to that standard, but with its topicality and pop-culture references it’s got legs and will have no trouble in attracting an audience anywhere it plays.

Peter Pinne