MICF 2010: Black Sheep - Glorious Baastards

A night of Indigenous sketch comedy, The Black Sheep’s Glorious Baastards is the fourth Comedy Festival show produced by Australia’s leading Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander theatre company, Ilbijerri, and follows in the footsteps of last year’s highly successful A Black Sheep Walks into a Baa.

Opening with a not-so-traditional, pointedly non-token, rapped 'welcome to country', Glorious Baastards is performed by two young comedians, Mia Stanford and Cy Fahey, and two older actors, Melodie Reynolds and Lisa Maza. The latter pair’s experience and confidence on stage somewhat overshadows their younger colleagues, with Maza particularly outstanding. Her over-the-top performance as an opera singer, complete with a possum, wattle and banksia hat that would make Dame Edna envious, was not just a brilliant satire of exoticised Aboriginal stereotypes; it also brought the house down.

While not every sketch hits its mark, when the Black Sheep are on fire, they’re blisteringly funny.

Three stars

Black Sheep - Glorious Baastards
Tue-Sat 6pm (no show 2 & 3 Apr)
Melbourne Town Hall
$10 - $20

This review first appeared in The Age on Monday March 29.