Students produce a number of comedy revues at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia each year. Written and performed by students, the shows comment satirically on current affairs, pop culture, dating and university life. They feature song parodies, short sketches, video segments and dance numbers. The first revue at the university, entitled Low Notes, was organised by the Students' Union in 1956.[1] The first revue by the UNSW Medical Society Revue, held in 1975, was entitled Rumpleforeskin and was quickly followed by the UNSW Law Revue Society's The Assault and Battery Operated Show.
Shows are typically named with a pun on a then-current pop culture reference: usually a movie but computer games, political slogans, television shows and books have also featured.
Since 1975, revues from the Law, Built Environment and Arts faculties, the School of Computer Science, and the university's Jewish community, have all been held. Notably, the UNSW Law Revue Society's 2020 and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Law and Justice Revue was the first video revue and the only revue to be held in 2020 due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Operationally, each of the three largest revues (Med, Law and CSE) is a club affiliated to UNSW Arc and subject to the latter's oversight. Revues retain their institutional memory through 'old revuers', participants who come back year after year. Former directors are often invited back to perform voice-overs and critique shows before they go to stage.
| UNSW Medical Revues[2] | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Rumpleforeskin | 1976 | Pandemonia, or Thanks for the Mammary | 1977 | It's Epidemic | 1978 | Gross Encounters of the Turd Kind | 1979 | The Sound of Mucus | 1980 | My Brilliant Diahorrea | ||
| 1981 | A Wet Summer Night's Dream | 1982 | Merry Maladies: What's up Doc? | 1983 | ET: The Extra Testicle | 1984 | Doctopussy | 1985 | All Crotches Great & Small | 1986 | Twilight Moan | ||
| 1987 | Dark Side Of The Toast | 1988 | Gastro Boy | 1989 | The Satanic Nurses | 1990 | Zen Cabbage | 1991 | Presumed Impotent | 1992 | Herniator 2 | ||
| 1993 | Missing In Traction | 1994 | All the President's Phlegm | 1995 | The Symptoms | 1996 | Glitter | 1997 | 12 Junkies | 1998 | South Cark | ||
| 1999 | Pre-Millennium Tension | 2000 | American Booty | 2001 | Medicator | 2002 | Stool Wards Episode Poo: Attack Of The Colons | 2003 | 8 Inch | 2004 | The Cat With The Fat | ||
| 2005 | Mary's Poppin | 2006 | Thrush Hour | 2007 | Kill Bulk Bill | 2008 | Happy Foetus | 2009 | Pirates of Cardiology: Dead Man's Chest | 2010 | Procrastinator Infection | ||
| 2011 | Surgery Street | 2012 | PokéMed: Gotta Cure Ém All | 2013 | Cirque du Surgery | 2014 | Peter Pandemic | 2015 | Super Cardio Bros | 2016 | Doctor Flu | ||
| 2017 | Booty and the Beast | 2018 | The Incredipills | 2019 | The Golden Probe Awards | 2021 | Breaking Bones | 2022 | Alice in Rabidland | 2023 | The Medic of Oz | ||
| UNSW Law Revues | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | The Assault and Battery Operated Show | 1977 | As Crime Goes Bi | 1978 | Don't Give me the Writz | 1979 | Justice You Like It | 1980 | Evicta: featuring "Don't Lie for me on Subpoena" | 1981 | A Penny for your Torts |
| 1982 | If They Could Sue Me Now | 1983 | Commission Impossible | 1984 | Rebel without a Clause | 1985 | Gone With the Briese | 1986 | The Good, The Bad and The Unsworth | 1987 | Police State Your Business or Rollover Trimbole |
| 1988 | Witless for the Prosecution | 1989 | Simply Inadmissible | 1990 | Sex, Bribes and Magistrates | 1991 | QC Hammer: U Can't Judge This! | 1992 | Republic Enemy | 1993 | Juristic Perk |
| 1994 | Faheywatch | 1995 | Bombe Perignon | 1996 | Coalition Impossible | 1997 | So Sue Me Street | 1998 | Godzillaw | 1999 | The Last Judgment |
| 2000 | Bored of the Rings | 2001 | Dude, Where's Bob Carr? | 2002 | Illegally Bombed featuring Detention Island | 2003 | Midget John's Diary | 2004 | Iraqi Horror Picture Show | 2005 | The Chronicles of Canberra: The Liar, The Bitch & The Xenophobe |
| 2006 | Hostile Powers: International Plan for Misery | 2007 | Poll Fiction | 2008 | Bar Wars Episode QC: Revenge of the Silks | 2009 | Harried Prosecutor and the Prisoner in Afghanistan | 2010 | Abbott In Blunderland | 2011 | Law Story |
| 2012 | The Lying King | 2013 | Lexis Case Law Massacre | 2014 | The Abbott: The Desolation of Aus | 2015 | The Blunder Games: Catching Liars | 2016 | 21 Judge Street | 2017 | Lady and the Trump |
| 2018 | The Bachelawyer | 2019 | Chilling Adventures of Subpoena | 2020 | 2020 & The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Law & Justice Revue | 2022 | No Crime to Lie | 2023 | Barbie: Life in the Jailhouse | ||
| UNSW CSE (Computer Science & Engineering) Revues [3] | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Minority Revue | 2003 | Revue Reloaded | 2004 | Star Key and Hash | 2005 | Sin CSE | 2006 | The teXt Files: Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind | 2007 | Sand Theft Auto: Agrabah City |
| 2008 | CSE++ // Revue goes large | 2009 | Gossip Geek | 2010 | Pacman: The Dark Byte | 2011 | Hack to the Future | 2012 | Codebusters | 2013 | The Infringers |
| 2014 | Game of Codes | 2015 | The Lego Revue | 2016 | ST*R WARS: The Source Awakens | 2017 | Avatar: The Last MacBook Airbender | 2018 | Mycrosoft Shrexcel | 2019 | Aladdin: Arraybian bytes[] |
| 2022 | Pirates of the Blue Screen: Deadlocked Chest | ||||||||||
| AUJS Revues | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Broadway Funny Nose | 1985 | Katz | 1986 | The Challah Purple | 1987 | Little Shop of Schnorrers | 1988 | Three Men and a Bagel | 1989 | Licence to Spiel / 21 Flood St |
| 1990 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Rabbis | 1991 | Spartuchus | 1992 | Hook | 1993 | Miss Shugina | 1994 | Foreskins and a Funeral | 1995 | A Fish Called Gefillte |
| 1996 | Mishna Impossible | 1997 | Shema Wars | 1998 | The Full Montefiore | 1999 | Austin Payos - The Spy who Schtupped Me | 2000 | X-Mensch | 2001 | Revue Live: Off Broadway |
| 2002 | Debbie Does Double Bay | 2003 | 8 Moyel | 2006 | Diaspora Housewives | 2007 | Harry Pottervich and the Order of the Seder | 2011 | The Lambshank Redemption | 2012 | Curb Your Judaism |
| 2013 | Jew Fast, Jew Furious | 2014 | Torah the Explorer | 2015 | Sabathday night fever | 2016 | Mad Max Brenner | ||||
An Arts & Social Sciences Revue was held in 2006, entitled It's Time.Arts Revue returned in 2013 and again in 2014, entitled 10 Things I Hate About Arts Revue
An engineering revue was held in 1991 entitled Gorillas On The Piss.
"Best of" revues typically combine selected material from previous shows, sometimes updated or adapted to take into account the intervening period of time. A "Best of" show, featuring material from both Med Revues and Law Revues from the years 1984–1989, was held in the Bondi Pavilion in 1990. The show was called A Fabulous Set of Steak Knives. A "Best of" called Heart Rate High: the Bex Years of Our Lives was held at the Figtree Theatre in 1996, but covered material from Med Revues only from 1990 to 1995. In 1998, a show was put on by revuers off-campus called Dead Fish are Fun, which featured some material from past Law and Med Revues, as well as original material. In 2001, a "Best of" show called Comedy for the Chemical Generation was held at the Figtree theatre covering material from Med Revues 1996–2000.
In 2006, Law & Orderlies, a "Best of" show covering both Med and Law Revue, was held at the Figtree Theatre. The bulk of material was drawn from Revues from 2000 to 2005, however the show also featured sketches from Med Revue 1975, Law Revue 1989, and Law Revue 1998.
In 2011, another "Best of" show was staged, again in the Fig Tree Theatre. The title of the show was "Deja Revue", and featured content mostly from 2006 - 2010 Med & Law Revues. The show had a 4 night run, and sold out every single seat for every single night, before the curtain had even opened on the first night.
In 2012, CSE Revue held their first "Best of" show, featuring the best sketches from the previous 10 shows.
Other revues at the university are held from time to time: students from New College, the Faculty of the Built Environment and the university's Buddhist club organise smaller-scale shows. Sketch comedy shows have also been hosted by the New South Wales University Theatrical Society (NUTS), the UNSW comedy club Studio Four, and other groups.
A medical-student-only production called UNSW Medshow (or sometimes Med Show) was established in 2000 by former Med Revuer Neil Jeyasingam, after the Med Revue stopped donating proceeds to charity, and due to the onerous rehearsal schedule that made it difficult for medical students to participate. Med Show has been held annually since.[4]
Revues are also held at: