The University of Sydney plays host to a wide variety of comedy revues each year, each typically tied to a faculty or identity group. Each revue features comedy sketches, songs and videos written and performed by students, usually commenting satirically on current affairs, the supporting faculty and general student life.
The Revues are casual student production, and as such are prone to production issues, such as when Engineering Revue was infamously saved in 2015 by a group of past-performers sourced from multiple revues whom put together a show in 2 days after the original cast fell through. The show trended across the country.
Most of the revues are performed in the Seymour Centre on the university's Darlington campus. Tickets range between $10 and $25, with various discounts for students. The revues are supported financially and administratively by the University of Sydney Union (USU) and presented in a collective "season".[1] The Revues range in budget and cast size, with the Faculty Revues using larger venues, and higher budgets as a result of Faculty funding.
Past revuers have gone on to perform, write and produce shows in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the New York Fringe Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe Festivals, in groups such as The Chaser, The Aunty Jack Show, The Ronny Johns Half Hour, The Axis of Awesome, Ben Jenkins & The Delusionists, and the Cloud Girls on triple j.[2]
Revues at USYD began with a single "USYD Revue", which then expanded to additional shows in the 1960s, with 13 revues performing in 2017. The original four Faculty revues were made up of students from Medicine, Law, Architecture and Engineering.
Of the revues, the largest are the Arts Revue, Science Revue, Med Revue and Law Revue. Engineering Revue has been staged in Manning Bar since 2006, and Commerce Revue made its debut in 2008. A Pharmacy Revue was planned for 2009, but was cancelled/postponed. The growing number of faculty revues has led to certain revues developing their own individual character, such as the Science Revue, which is known less for science specific humour, and instead for the work of its distinct troupes of singers, dancers and band, who work alongside the actors.[3]
Since 2013 a Best Of show, usually named University of Sydney Revue, has been staged as a part of the Sydney Comedy Festival, which is composed of the best performers and scenes from the previous season.
With Womn's Revue first performed in 2007, and Queer Revue in 2010, the set of Identity Revues has expanded in recent years with productions including Jew Revue, POC Revue and International Revue. From 2016 onwards, a separate, earlier Revue Season was created for the Identity Revues during the first semester of the university calendar.[4]
The popularity of revues saw a decrease, with steady drops in ticket sales recorded in 2016 from the past few years. Lockdowns in 2020 resulted in an almost non existent 2020 revue season, which put strain on revues such as International Revue, which dissolved as a society in 2022.[5]
The Science Revue debuted in its current iteration in 2006. The Revue is best known for having a large cast, with 92 cast members in the 2008 production.[6] This has led to the development of distinct troupes (Acting, Singing, Dancing and Band), who all contribute to the sketch development (the band being the last to join this process in 2017).[7] Science Revue is also one of the few revues to consistently use the York Theatre, the largest theatre available at the Seymour Centre.
In the wake of the success of the Science Revue band in 2019, members of the production and others created Band Revue as part of the Sydney University Dramatic Society (SUDS) 'Summer Slots,' running off the limited budget provided by SUDS.[8] Marketed as a "Science Revue Fundraiser", it received positive reviews for its 3 night run, but currently is not a standalone Revue.[9]
Engineering Revue is the only Revue listed to not be supported by the USU, instead running as an ad hoc organisation. The Revue is known for being planned at the last minute and featuring large amounts of both alcohol and heckling, by both audience and performers.[10] [11] Due to numerous bans from performance venues on campus, Engineering Revue is currently held in PNR Lecture Theatre.[12]
POC (People of Colour) Revue debuted in 2015, under the name ACAR Revue (Autonomous Collective Against Racism), as a response to the lack of POC cast and crew in other revues at the time. The 2015 production was described as a "test run" given its unorthodox venue and rushed production. The Revue was rebranded as POC Revue from 2017 onwards.
Womn's Revue debuted in 2007 as "Women's Revue", returning in 2009, and then going on Hiatus until it was reestablished in 2015 as "Wom*n's Revue".[13] From 2017 the show has been titled "Womn's Revue".[14] The show is described as specifically "written, directed, performed and produced by those who identify as, or have lived experience as womn!"[15]
Queer Revue debuted in 2010, as a show specifically for both members of the Queer Community, and allies. In recent years, Queer Revue has differed from other Revues by having 3 Directors, as seen in 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023.[16]
| Season | Revue | Title | Location | Dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 Revue Season | Science | Quantum Tunnelling For Dummies | |||
| 2007 Revue Season | Science | Pulp Friction | |||
| 2008 Revue Season | Science | Radius of the Lost Arc | |||
| 2009 Revue Season (19 August - 24 September) | Science | Jurassic Quark | |||
| 2010 Revue Season (11 August - 18 September) | Arts | The Wizard of Arts | 11 August 2010 | ||
| Law | How to Lose Votes and Aggregate People | ||||
| Womn's | Ghoul's Night | ||||
| Commerce | Industryous Basterds | ||||
| Queer | The Gay After Tomorrow | ||||
| Engineering | How to Drain Your Flagon (Responsibly!) | ||||
| Education and Social Work | The Shawshank Detention | ||||
| Architecture | Ceci n'est pas une revue d'architecture | ||||
| Science | Sherlock Ohms and Doctor Wattson in The Charge of the Light Brigade | ||||
| Medicine | Cadavatar | 18 September 2010 | |||
| 2011 Revue Season (8 August – 3 September) | Medicine | Beauty and Deceased | York Theatre | Week 1 | |
| Arts | How We Learnt to Love Again | Everest Theatre | Week 2 | ||
| Law | The Socially Awkward Network | York Theatre | Week 2 | ||
| Education and Social Work | Gladi-ATAR | Reginald Theatre | Week 2 | ||
| Architecture | Nineteen Eighty Floor | Reginald Theatre | Week 3 | ||
| Engineering | James Blonde: The Man with the Golden Ale | Manning Bar | Week 3 | ||
| Science | NASAblanca | York Theatre | Week 3 | ||
| Commerce | Economy of Errors | Everest Theatre | Week 4 | ||
| Queer | The Queen | Reginald Theatre | Week 4 | ||
| 2011 (Out of Season) | Veterinary | Camden Campus | |||
| 2012 Revue Season | Science | Sin(x) City | |||
| 2013 Revue Season | Science | How We Built a Time Machine and Ruined Everything | |||
| Commerce | Les Biz | Everest Theatre | August 2013[17] | ||
| Queer | Peter Pansexual[18] | Reginald Theatre | September 2013 | Winner of the USU Dave Burnett Award for a Club with Fewer than 100 Members (Short Listed)[19] | |
| Medicine | Winner of the USU Best Video Award | ||||
| 2014 Revue Season (20 August - 27 September) | Law | House of Clerks | |||
| Arts | The Unlimited Dream Factory | ||||
| Architecture | The Price is Frank Lloyd Wright | ||||
| Med Revue | Snow White and the Seven Dollar Copayment | ||||
| Queer | The Nightmare Before Mardi Gras[20] | 27-29 August 2014 | |||
| Commerce | Moolah Rouge | Everest Theatre | 28-30 August 2014[21] | ||
| Science | Trapeze Gets Degrees | York Theatre | |||
| Education and Social Work | The Land Before Timetables | ||||
| Engineering | AGM of Thrones: A Song of Fire (Whiskey) on Ice | ||||
| Veterinary | The Acattery Awards | ||||
| 2014 (Out of Season) | Jew Revue | Torah the Explorer | late May | ||
| 2015 Revue Season | Arts | Sun Tzu's The Arts of War[22] | York Theatre | 13-15 August 2015 | |
| Queer | STRAIGHT TO HELL | Reginald Theatre | 27-29 August 2015[23] | ||
| Science | Darwins & Dragons | York Theatre | 27-29 August 2015 | ||
| Commerce | Guys and Dollar Bills | Everest Theatre | 27-29 August 2015[24] | ||
| ACAR † | A Race Odyssey[25] | Red Rattler Theatre | 22 October 2015[26] | ||
| 2016 Identity Revue Season | ACAR † | The Presidential Race | |||
| Queer | Liberté, Égalité, Firing Squad | Reginald Theatre | 9-11 June 2016 | ||
| 2016 Faculty Revue Season | Science | It Came From Planet Space | York Theatre | 25-27 August 2016 | |
| Commerce | The Rise and Fall of Bliss Industries | Everest Theatre | 25-27 August 2016[27] | ||
| 2017 Identity Revue Season (11 May - 3 June) | Womn's | Memories R Always | Reginald Theatre | ||
| Queer | Queer Space 9 - Escape From Trash Planet | Reginald Theatre | 18-20 May 2017[28] | ||
| 2017 Faculty Revue Season | Commerce | In the Red | Everest Theatre | 17-19 August 2017[29] | |
| Science | Rational Treasure | York Theatre | 7-9 September 2017 | ||
| 2018 Identity Revue Season | POC | POC Revue IV: Heroes of Time Past[30] | Reginald Theatre | 10-12 May 2018 | |
| Queer | Queerer Things[31] | Reginald Theatre | 17-19 May 2018 | Winner of the USU Award for Best Poster[32] | |
| 2018 Faculty Revue Season | Science | Schrödinger's Deal and No Deal | York Theatre | 30 August - 1 September 2018 | |
| Commerce | Camp Comedy | Reginald Theatre | 6-8 September 2018[33] | Winner of the USU Award for Best Revue 2018 | |
| 2019 Identity Revue Season | Queer | Dead Bi Morning | Reginald Theatre | 2-4 May 2019[34] | |
| POC | The Hard Sell | Reginald Theatre | 11-13 April 2019[35] | ||
| Womn's | Inside the Snowglobe | Reginald Theatre [36] | |||
| International | Crazy, Broke Students | Factory Theatre [37] | |||
| 2019 Faculty Revue Season | Law | Married at First Citation | Everest Theatre[38] | 29-31 August 2019 | |
| Arts | That's a Sketch by John Hughes | ||||
| Med Revue | A Registrar is Born | ||||
| Commerce | Boardroom Blitz | Reginald Theatre | 28-31 August 2019[39] | ||
| Science | CSI: Rogue Operation (Styled CSI:RO)[40] | York Theatre | 22-24 August 2019 | Winner of the USU Award for Best Revue 2019 | |
| 2020 (Out of Season) | Band †† | The Good, The Band & The Ugly! | Cellar Theatre | 30 Jan - 1 Feb 2020 | |
| 2021 Identity Revue Season | POC | The Period Piece[41] | Reginald Theatre | 22-24 April 2021 | |
| Queer | Cirque Do So-Gay[42] | Reginald Theatre | 29 April - 1 May 2021[43] | ||
| 2021 Faculty Revue Season | Commerce | Commerce Revue Presents: The Logies[44] | Reginald Theatre | 2-5 February 2022 | While originally in the 2021 Revue Season, COVID related issues forced the production to delay until 2022. |
| Science | Seance Revue[45] | York Theatre | 12 March 2022 | While originally in the 2021 Revue Season, COVID related issues forced the production to delay until 2022. | |
| 2022 Identity Revue Season | Womn's | Womn's Revue: On Tour![46] | Reginald Theatre | 28-30 April 2022 | |
| POC | POC Revue 3022 - Futurism[47] | Reginald Theatre | 4-7 May 2022 | Winner of the USU Award for Best Revue 2022 | |
| Queer | Knights of Campelot: The Quest for the Sword in the Stone[48] | Reginald Theatre | 12-14 May 2022 | ||
| 2022 Faculty Revue Season | Law | Pulp Jurisdiction[49] | York Theatre | 25-27 August 2022 | |
| Arts | Wipeout![50] | Reginald Theatre | 24-27 August 2022 | ||
| Science | A B sCience[51] | York Theatre | 15-17 September 2022 | ||
| 2023 Identity Revue Season | Queer | Been Gay, Done Crime | Reginald Theatre | 27-29 April 2023 | |
| Womn's | Take Off![52] | Reginald Theatre | 3-6 May 2023 | ||
| POC | The Family Reunion[53] | Reginald Theatre | 11-13 May 2023 | ||
| 2023 (Out of Season) | Engineering | Engo Revue Strikes Back | PNR Lecture Theatre | 4 May 2023 | |
| 2023 Faculty Revue Season | Science | Cosmic Relief[54] | Everest Theatre | 17-19 August 2023 | |
| Law | Evidence Everywhere All At Once[55] | Everest Theatre | 24-26 August 2023 | ||
| Med | ChatGP[56] | Everest Theatre | 21-23 September 2023 |
†† Band Revue is technically an event made by the Science Revue