The Gospel According to Paul, at Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
Witty, acerbic and insightful, Jonathan Biggins gloriously captures the essence of former Prime Minister and Treasurer Paul Keating.
It is a 90-minute tour de force performance, during which you dare not avert your eyes for a moment.
He parades around a stylish, maroon coloured set, complete with paintings, a mantelpiece clock, ceramic vases, a bankers’ desk and elegant armchair.
Front page photo by Brett Boardman
Keating was never short of self-belief. Neither is Biggins in his guise.
Biggins (as Keating) starts with a deliberately vain attempt at interacting with the audience (he says at the whim of his producer), which merely results in put downs.
With smart one liners and contemporary political references, he proceeds to lambast the dismal records of the Prime Ministers (and would be leaders) that preceded and succeeded him.
As a pointer to Biggins’ risqué humour as Keating, he describes Harold Holt as “so inept, he couldn’t even swim between the flags”.
He sends a brickbat Pauline Hanson’s way, calling her “an odious piece of work”.
His choice words draw howls of laughter from an appreciative audience.
Next comes a reminder of what true political leadership looks like: imagination (to see the big picture) and courage (to see it through).
The rest of the night is spent providing a most engaging and entertaining history lesson, complete with slides.
So it is that Biggins (as Keating), charts the life and times of the man born on 18th January 1944, who rose to become Australia’s 24th Prime Minister.
It starts with the house where he grew up in Bankstown.
He talks about his parents, his beloved grandmother, who died when Keating was 11, and an uncle lost to war.
His lifelong love of classical music was sparked when he was 12.
As Biggins tells it, Keating’s introduction to politics came early too.
He was already letterbox dropping for the ALP at age 10 and attended his first branch meeting just shy of his 15th birthday. He’d left school at 14.
Biggins’ shows off a couple of slick cars Keating drove in the early days and how he appreciates the finer things in life.
That includes a timepiece that dates back to 1795 and cost Keating three months’ wages, at the age of 15.
While trying his hand at managing the band The Ramrods, he calls Tom Jones the greatest individual artist of his lifetime.
Having dealt with the personal, Biggins charts Keating’s political highs and lows.
A big fan of JFK, he speaks of his political influences and the household names that were prominent during the Hawke-Keating years.
He is not averse to using colourful language for maximum impact.
Biggins highlights how effective (at least initially) the working relationship was between Hawke and Keating and just how driven Hawke was.
That, of course, was before Hawke reneged on a deal (known as the Kirribilli Agreement) to hand over power to Keating.
In the end, Keating was in Parliament for 26½ years (from 25th October, 1969 to 23rd April, 1996).
As Biggins tells it, Keating later turned down an Order of Australia and doesn’t want a state funeral when the time comes.
Biggins not only performs as Keating, but wrote the words. He calls The Gospel According to Paul “the first three-dimensional unauthorised autobiography”.
He says he’s “pretty sure most of it is true and the bits that may not be” he wishes were.
Biggins paints Keating largely sympathetically, as a man of intellect who doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
He assumes Keating’s look and gait. He even takes the opportunity to warble and gyrate a few times on the journey he takes with us.
Biggins’ showmanship and his ability to read and play up to the crowd are among his distinguishing features.
He is assured and dynamic.
Anyone with a passing interest in politics and in political history would be wise to rush out and buy a ticket to see Biggins in action.
Directed by Aarne Neeme, The Gospel According to Paul is playing at Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne until 1st November, 2026.
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