Satire: alive and well

K and I were pleased to go and see keating the musical tonight.
Fantastically well done performance. Reminding one of the power of satire, as well as of certain insights which maybe we have forgotten.
Particularly the one where Keating was defeated by the little chimp...the echo of the song being what chumps Australians are to prefer to'just go back to the way things were before'.
I was also deeply moved by the skittish Mabo song, so full of life and which reminded us of how wonderfully life-giving that was.
It is unremittingly cruel to Howard who seems more like Brezhnev than an Australian PM, and the fact that Hawke and Howard are played by the same person is telling us something about Hawke too.
It is a little but not totally unfair to both of them.
On the side we were standing in front of Bob Ling former CEO of Hill's industries who I knew from a long time ago. He must have been bemusedto see the range of new flags that Keating was allegedly promoting. One of which had a Hill's hoist on it. More importantly I spotted Lowitja from afar, she must have been cheered by the spirit with which the move forward in aboriginal issues was presented.
K struggled (being only 24) to keep upwith the history, and she wryly observed that was why the audience was mainly made up of people my age rather than hers.
I made sure to introduce her to Archdeacon C as my daughter, lest he think I was out with this gorgeous younger woman (which I suppose I was!)