Dame Edna, the suburban Melbourne, Australia, housewife and cult classic with the natural purple hair and lacerating tongue, says goodbye…again.
Dame Edna last performed in Toronto, Dame Edna: The Royal Tour, back in 2000 at the Pantages Theatre, now the Mirvish Theatre, and again in 2005, Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance at the Royal Alexander Theatre. Her Farewell tour has been going on since 2009. We, my family, stumbled across Dame Edna on late night television back when we had those “special” satellite dishes. She was hilarious, often inappropriate and colourful in her language and always cruel to Marge, Humphries real –life wife. We instantly feel in love with her. In 2005 we witnessed her first hand taking on the audience if they weren’t dressed well enough for her presence, or rudely spoke to the person beside them while she was speaking.
I’m glad to see that 80 years the Dame has not learned to control herself one bit. It was a no holds bar opening night yesterday at the Princess of Whales Theatre, aptly suited for a Dame of her caliber. No one was safe even one poor theatre critic who couldn’t help himself in speaking back to her. In previous interviews Humphries has been called “a mix of Joan Rivers, Don Rickles, the queen mother and a boxing kangaroo”. And I couldn’t say it any better.
The Dame is Back
The first half of the production is Edna at her best, taking on the audience with quick witty rhetoric that doesn’t allow even the most adept of us to have a fighting chance on a return. This comedy style done wrong could be found insulting but what sets Humphries apart is the elegance of his phrasing, it always comes off in good-humour. The Dame dishes not only on those members in the cheap seats whom she graciously named mizes – short for Les Miserable, a step up from paupers. “I promise to glance your way in the exact proportion to what you have paid”, but she equal teases herself reciting stories of her late husband and “loser” son Bruce who is an entrepreneur. “It’s French for failure,” she explains.
Intermixed with a few over-the-top styled dance numbers that add that occasional flare, the first act felt a little long (please don’t scold me Dame). What did have a lasting impression was her astute inclusion of Toronto-isms, personalizing the jokes with a local flair the audience responded to in great laughter, especially her opening song including Gian and Mike Duffy.
Act two provides more of a scripted approach as the Dame recalls her recent trip to India. “A trailer park for the soul,” she describes of her private ashram for the elite where everyone tried to check in as less assumable personality. “The Dalai Lama checked in as Leonard Cohen, Oprah checked in as the Dalai Lama and Bill Cosby checked in as O.J. Simpson, and even offered to freshen up my drink.” Her story-telling is what attracted me to her comedy sense in the first place and now, it felt as though the master had returned.
When they audience participation came up again, Edna had something else up her sleeves. Now being a guru master she randomly chose two audience members to be “solemnized” pronounced sodomized – a marriage-like ritual. After the ceremony, she forced the calling of the woman’s husband who was greeted with Edna’s gleeful voice on the good news that his wife of 47 years had left him for a younger gay man. How could you not irrupt in laughter and cheer?
Naturally, as is her trade mark, the show concludes with gladiolas being flung into the audience, audience members, some with actual tears, swaying back-and-forth to the farewell music. Had it not been for the return of Humphries, out of drag, to provide a last hurray for Edna, the audience may have stayed all night chanting “one more farewell, one more farewell”. And for all we know, they may yet get their wish.
Dame Edna’s Glorious Goodbye: The Farewell Tour plays for a limited engagement until April 19th. Tickets are available at www.mirvish.com Take someone you love, or even better, take someone you don’t and get front row seats.
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