Review of the comedy legend's 'audience with'-style tour

As Covid masks are widely discarded, Barry Humphries offers a reflective peek at the ‘recovering comedian’ behind the metaphorical masks he dons for his characters in this intimate ‘audience with…’ show.

A decade after his so-called ‘farewell tour’, the Australian comedy legend says he’s been drawn back to the stage as its the only place he feels truly at home. Given that he’s in his 89th year, he can be forgiven for slowing down, so this ‘stumbling attempt at an honest self-portrait’ is understandably a more subdued affair than witnessing Dame Edna Everage or Sir Les Patterson in their outlandish pomp.

Humphries never quite offers the deep analysis his preamble promises, although some of his personality and what makes him tick inevitably shines through two hours in his delightful, urbane company, sharing just some of the anecdotes from his eventful life.

Part one takes us back to the suburban Melbourne of the 1940s and 1950s, a Little England transplanted to the other side of the planet where he grew up in relative wealth – the family home even had a separate tradesman’s entrance.  Some tales from his childhood reveal a slight cruel streak, which persevered into his comedy work, where it was softened with mischief.

Humphries’s first stage role came in 1955, as the romantic lead Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night. After the director told him ‘you’re naturally ridiculous’, he decided he was more suited to comedy than drama. And on forgetting his lines so badly in a Noel Coward play, he vowed never again to perform other people’s words.

While touring in regional theatres he would meet petty, pretentious mayoresses, haughty queens of their own tiny worlds, and the seeds of Edna were planted. Another influence was his mother, described here as a ‘mistress of the vocabulary of discouragement’. He always could turn a phrase, could Barry.

Before he found a success in Australia that he wouldn’t be able to leave behind, he travelled to London, taking a job on the raspberry ripple line in the Wall’s ice cream factory in Acton, West London, as he tried to make his name.

Humphries says he’s been told (presumably by director Nikki Woolaston) not to lose his thread, as going off-topic is an irresistible instinct. Yet the show sparkles with the frisson of unpredictability whenever he starts interrogating the front row – although another diversion into various types of soap proves as dull as it sounds.

After the interval, the show focuses on his post-fame years, leaning heavily on some hugely entertaining clips. We see Dame Edna ‘singing’ at the Albert Hall, reducing Prince Charles to giggles and encountering Hollywood’s A-list for her chat show parody. Who else could get a legend like Charlton Heston to be a stooge in a prop comedy stunt?

Humphries’s great life overlaps with so many others: Gloria Swanson, Elton John, Salvador Dali, Elizabeth Taylor, The Queen. Some of these encounters are recorded only in the nostalgic images in the programme, others are the topics of on-stage anecdotes.

Edna shared a sofa with Donald Trump, and predicted he’d be President decades before he was. And there’s a telling interview with a youthful Boris Johnson, which could be accused of burnishing his public image had she not given him a rougher ride than some heavyweight interviewers.

However, probably the best anecdote is not about celebrity, but on picking on the wrong punter at the Broadway premiere of his Tony-winning show Edna: The Spectacle.

This entertaining affair is tempered by an occasional sombre note, including an affecting section in which he speaks frankly about overcoming alcoholism more than half a century ago. But mostly the tone remains light and playful.

Although he makes a few quips about being ‘cancelled’, Humphries sidesteps any controversies he’s sparked over a lifetime’s iconoclastic pursuit of what he once called his ‘right to give deep and profound offence’.

Even with omissions, Behind The Mask is a charming, relatively cosy, celebration of a life that deserves to be celebrated. And of course he can’t help but slip into the Butterfly specs of Melbourne’s favourite housewife superstar, just for a moment – and even suggests another farewell tour could be in the offing.

• Barry Humphries: The Man Behind The Mask is on UK tour, including three dates at the Gielgud Theatre in London. Barry Humphries tour dates. See also manbehindthemask.co.uk

Review date: 26 Apr 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Richmond Theatre