Rupert: The story of the Adolf Hitler of the press world

Rupert
by David Williamson
Auckland Theatre Company

Q Theatre
Until July 19

Is Rupert Murdoch a high stakes gambler, an astute businessman or a ruthless press baron?

He has been seen by many as the saviour of print journalism and the provider of quality mass media entertainment but by other as the Adolf Hitler of the press world or a reincarnation of William Randolph Hearst.

ATC’s production of Rupert tries to deal with all these facets of the man in a cabaret style show covering 60 years of the man’s life. It’s a lot to get through and sometimes playwright David Williamson goes into information overload and we don’t get enough time to digest what we see or time for reflection.

It’s like any other cabaret act where the performers finish their mind-boggling performances before we can really appreciate their talent. We track Murdoch from his left-leaning time at Oxford, through his Australian years building up a media empire and then his takeover of the British and US media right up to the recent phone hacking scandal. Running through this is his roller coaster relationships with family, wives and children.

Murdoch (Stuart Devenie) presides over a Mastermind/This is Your Life set inviting audiences to follow his approved life story. While he acts as narrator to this tale, it is Damien Avery as the Young Murdoch who does most of the acting. The other half dozen members of the cast flesh out the history, playing 50 minor roles. Hera Dunleavey does well as several of the Murdoch women but it as Margaret Thatcher that she shines, doing a tango with Damien Avery.

Stephen Lovatt gives some great performances especially as Ronald Reagan and Tony Blair while Simon Prast provides some astute acting with his dozen impersonations. As one of the few voices of reason in the play, Jennifer Ward-Lealand as Anne, one of his wives, points out the failings of Murdoch in some lines that are delivered with an emotional fury worthy of a Greek chorus.

Some of the caricatures of famous people – Kerry Packer, Ronald Reagan and Tony Blair – are brilliant with Adam Gardiner’s Gough Whitlam wearing huge eyebrows getting extended laughs when he managed to lose one of them.

The musical numbers are a clever way of dividing up the Murdoch eras with “Start Spreading the News” an appropriate way to herald his entry into the US market. But many of these musical offerings are inconsequential and lack flair.

The audio-visual design by Tom Bogdanowicz is brilliant, adding to an understanding of both Murdoch’s history and recent world events. Cartoonist Jeff Bell and soundstage designer Thomas Press add to this as well.

The large background screen is used to show some of Murdoch’s and his editors notable headlines – GOTCHA! announcing the sinking of the Argentinian battleship General Belgrano in the Falklands War along with sensationalist Mexican Killer Bees Head North and Headless Body in Topless Bar.

The play was full of high revving humour and high velocity dancing as it followed the whirlwind career of Murdoch and the audience lapped it all up as though they were Murdoch’s greatest fans. Rupert shows how politics, capitalism and the media can be captured and manipulated for the benefits not of mankind but of one man.