The theme for this year’s University of Sydney’s People of Colour (POC) Revue is “SOUNDCHECK”, with co-directors Victoria Georges and Aditya Rao putting together a brilliant mix of physical comedy, musical numbers, and videos. Georges introduces the revue by declaring it a “reclamation” of music and performance from the shackles of whiteness, and acknowledging POC pioneers in the space.
The first sketch starts with a parody of Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Brutal’, the sudden explosion of pop-punk blasting from the speakers launching us straight into the ethos of the revue: “rock and roll was our debut, it’s made by us and sold by you”. As everyone screams “fuck, we’ve always been here” during the chorus, the theme of reclamation is evident, opening the show in a brilliant manner. The second sketch, and the first audiovisual one, is also a standout. It’s an ad for POCODOL: an antidote to the headaches of dealing with white people (“you’re so much better than that…and them”). POCODOL is not only hilarious on its own, but very cleverly used a recurring bit in the play (as a sponsorship in TV-themed sketches, and a suggested remedy in others). Another audiovisual highlight is “I’m just Kev” — featuring Kaitlyn Nguyen as the titular ‘Kev’ — a Barbie parody video which hilariously ties together many niche sydney POC in-jokes: the cliche UNSW medicine degree, wannabe-Leb behaviour, and the infamous Asian lactose intolerance.
Many notable sketches subvert local or popular culture: “Black and Blak” turns the classic game show format on its head; two contestants (Cherrie Jeong, Moira-Kelly Cruz) battle it out spectacularly poorly, witnessed by astonished Black/Blak hosts (Peta Pyrgiotis, Taylah Cooper). Elsewhere, an absurd meeting of all the different Avatar variations pokes fun at their consistent whitewashing (Amelia Vogelsang, Apoorv Jaiswal, Jeong, Mahima Singh, Kaitlyn Nguyen, Cruz, Rubba Fatima, Samantha Saunders, Sara Chaturvedi, Shaheen Boaz, Vanessa Alexandrakis). One of the standout crowd favourites was “Cunt(y) Birth”, which ended with jaw-dropping vogueing from Kai Wang and a round of cheering and applause. Wang also shone in “Haunted Aunty House” alongside the haunted aunties themselves: Vogelsang and Luna Yuet Yee Ng.
I was particularly pleased with the sketches about Western Sydney, which can often—even by POC and Western Sydney residents themselves—be reduced to a caricature of accents, HSPs, and eshays. POC revue’s Western-Sydney-ification of “The Bear” (Amrita Vivekanandhan, Bipasha Chakraborty, Singh, Pyrgiotis, Sabine Sfeir, Chaturvedi, Boaz), set in a FootLocker that I’m choosing to headcanon as one in Parramatta Westfields, has a great set of jokes —propelled forward hilariously by Boaz— about street style, sneakers, and specifically sambas. The only thing it’s missing is an indictment of the infectious acai trend plaguing everyone south of the Red Rooster line. Then, we have “Mean Girls: The Moosical” (Vivekanandhan, Chakraborty, Nguyen, Cruz, Sfeir, Chaturvedi), featuring the all-desi ‘Patels’; an iconic twist on a cult classic movie notably absent of any leading POC roles. The construction of this sketch was perfect. Massive props to the crew and designers for nailing the gloriously pink lighting and the scrapbook-inspired lyric slideshow. For a moment, I swear I saw the ghost of Avantika herself possess Chaturvedi, who killed the delivery of Karen’s iconic “dance break!” line.
POC revue did not shy away from talking about Israel’s genocide in Gaza, displaying a Palestinian flag atop one of the drum kits and including a sketch (“IDF Pick Me”) where a pick-me girl interviews for a job that is shockingly revealed to be for the IDF ( Pyrgiotis, Wang). Wang speaks directly to the audience in loud and piercing rhetorical questions “Are you okay with occupation, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes?”. Whilst this was an undoubtedly important and well-delivered message, many audience members felt it was misplaced within the order of the show, as its seriousness was somewhat jarringly followed by a lighthearted “Thirst Tweets” sketch. Perhaps placing it closer to the intermission, or towards the end of the revue, would give audiences time and space to process and discuss Palestine. Nevertheless, the messaging was strong and the solidarity was clear.
The band (Angel Tan, Brian Lim, Eko Bautista, Ethan Surya, Jennifer Gao, Phoenix Vanya Firdaus) plays a criminally underrated role in every revue, but were given the space to shine in this one. On top of ensuring perfectly smooth musical transitions between sketches, they had a starring role in a skit about skipping through songs (“Skip Through”), proving their musical chops by deftly switching from genre to genre.
Co-director Rao explained in an Instagram video shared in the lead-up to opening night: “We have always been here, that’s kind of our tagline for this show”. Watching it live, I can’t help but feel deeply impressed at everyone’s ability to bring this tagline to life — each piece of the show spotlights the sheer talent and enduring impact that POC have had on the performing arts, and the necessity of cultivating this inclusive atmosphere in all theatre, everywhere.
POC Revue 2024: Soundcheck has two more shows on May 10 and 11. Tickets can be found here.
