★★★½
There’s a very specific problem with reviewing a show about Paul Keating when you were just a kid when the man left office. You understand enough to know why everyone’s laughing, but every now and then a joke sails straight over your head and lands somewhere around 1993.
That was roughly my experience with The Gospel According to Paul, Jonathan Biggins’ wonderfully sharp one-man tribute to Australia’s 24th Prime Minister, now playing at QPAC’s Playhouse as part of a national tour.
As reported in The Scoop’s Newsroom earlier this month, Biggins has returned to the role with fresh material covering everything from AUKUS and negative gearing to Pauline Hanson and the current state of Australian politics.
The show has been touring in various forms since 2019, but this updated version proves there’s still plenty of life left in Keating’s particular brand of political savagery.
And Biggins is frighteningly good. So good, in fact, that when the lights came up my fiancée turned to me and immediately asked, “So, did this guy literally just write a show about his own life and then star in it?”
There was a brief silence before I very awkwardly had to explain, “You know that wasn’t actually Paul Keating…He’s an actor.”
In her defence, Keating resigned from Parliament in 1996, well before my fiancée was even born. I was just a kid myself, so I’m hardly approaching this as a walking encyclopaedia of Australian political history.
I did, however, understand enough to thoroughly enjoy the various jabs at John Howard, Pauline Hanson, Gough Whitlam and the revolving circus that is Australian politics.
Biggins’ transformation is remarkable. The voice, posture, facial expressions and enormous sense of self-confidence are so convincing that after a while you genuinely stop thinking about the actor underneath it all.
He does not simply impersonate Keating; he seems to crawl inside his skin, capturing that famous combination of intelligence, arrogance, charm and absolute willingness to verbally annihilate anyone standing in his way.
The writing is equally strong. Political satire can date horribly quickly, but Biggins has kept the show moving with the times. There’s something wonderfully satisfying about watching 90 minutes of intelligent political humour that isn’t afraid to assume its audience can keep up. Well, most of the time.
The only element that didn’t quite work for me is the music. The handful of musical numbers don’t have the same confidence as the spoken material and at times interrupt the momentum of the performance. Given how sharp the writing is, I’m not entirely convinced the show needs them.
There’s also no escaping the fact that The Gospel According to Paul will reward some generations more than others. QPAC recommends the production for audiences 15 and over. But unless you’re a particularly enthusiastic teenage political-history nerd, I’d probably push that number considerably higher.
As a person in my early 30s, I honestly felt like I was hovering around the minimum age for full enjoyment. I caught plenty of the references, missed others entirely, and occasionally relied on the roar of older audience members to tell me something had landed particularly hard. Still, when it lands, it really lands.
The Gospel According to Paul is political satire at its absolute best. It is clever, brutal, incredibly well observed and anchored by a performance from Biggins that borders on ridiculous in its accuracy. Maybe just give anyone born after the Howard Government a quick history lesson on the drive in.
The Gospel According To Paul runs in Brisbane at the Playhouse, QPAC to 23 August. It then runs Canberra Theatre Centre in September, Arts Centre Melbourne in October and Sydney Theatre Company in November. See further details below.
Ticket links can be found at the website and at the links below.
Website: https://softtread.com.au/the-gospel-according-to-paul/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/softtreadent/
Photo credits: Brett Boardman
2026 Australian Tour dates include (but are not limited to):
Brisbane 18 – 23 August, Playhouse QPAC Tickets
Canberra 15 – 20 September, Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre Tickets
Melbourne 20 October – 1 November, Arts Centre Melbourne Tickets
Sydney 6 November – 20 December, Wharf 1 Theatre Tickets
