The last PSA Election Special, in 2014, was sideswiped by the surprise appearance of Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics – How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment, reputed to have derailed the election agenda. This year he and Jon Stephenson had the decency to give the PSA writers a fairer go by launching Hit & Run – The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the meaning of honour a couple of months ahead of this opening night. The trouble is, it’s ‘yesterday’s news’, so that issue gets no mention in this show.

The hot item this week, breaking two days before PSA Election Day opens, is Alfred Ngaro’s ‘miss-spoken’ suggestion that funding for NGOs may be threatened if their officials speak out against the government. I can attest that Carrie Green was already cast as Ngaro well before he became a household name. Likewise the promotional claim, “no political bungle will be swept under the rug” is right there in the promotional material.

So, do the writers, Thom Adams and James Nokise, capitalise on that? Short answer: no. Ngaro’s brief role is as a National Party emissary to the Māori Party. There’s no mention of Willy Jackson either. The writers stick with their tried and ‘true’ generalised pastiche of the political parties. In fact after a few relatively topical references, they opt for a fantastical Election Day scenario that may or may not be either or both’s political wet dream. Or nightmare.

It would be a spoiler to explain it further, although I can say the Green Party’s co-leader James Shaw happens to sit next to me and he seems to enjoy himself hugely although a pensive stillness does come upon him from time to time. It may or may not be pertinent to note that more Green candidates appear in this show that for any other party – unless we add Lord Mayor Justin Lester (Michael Trigg) and Councillor Paul Eagle (Matthew Staijen-Leach) to the Labour fold. Their ‘curtain-raiser’ skit gets us well warmed up.

Labour leader Andrew Little (Simon Leary) paces like a pro wrestler ready to rumble, inveigling a pumped Jacinda Ardern (Anya Tate-Manning) and tap-dancing Grant Robertson (Andrew Paterson) into donning the appropriate headgear. The departing Annette King (Hannah Clarke) is a poignant figure while Kelvin Davis (Matthew Staijen-Leach) is always hot to power-jog.

It’s all about numbers and you’ll have to see the show to know what Labour’s all-important ‘Rule No. 5’ is. There is also some clever banter on where those who may defect from Labour will take their votes.

Questions of leadership always lurk on Election Day, depending on the outcome, and National’s somewhat predatory Paula Bennett (Bronwyn Turei) and i-phone preoccupied Nikki Kaye (Hannah Clarke) are biding their time … Bill English (Alex Grieg) is preoccupied with pizza-toppings until he progresses to chatting up potential coalition partners. (Currently National’s ability to govern depends on its confidence and supply agreements with the Māori Party, ACT and United Future; coalition would be a whole new step.)

I can’t say I quite grasp the import of Hayden Frosts’ impressive turn as an internally/eternally conflicted Gollum/Sméagol figure but it introduces the highly excitable Greens team: Metiria Turei (Carrie Green), James Shaw (Andrew Paterson), Gareth Hughes (Michael Trigg), Julie-Anne Genter (Bronwyn Turei) and Chloe Swarbrick (Hayden Frost), later joined by Hayley Holt (Alex Greig). Carrie’s rendition, as Metiria, of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ is a show-stopper.

The formidable Māori Party – Marama Fox (Bronwyn Turei) and Te Ururoa Flavell (Matthew Steijan-Leach) – are also searching for an appropriate song (to name their try-outs would be a spoiler) and the whole debate about whether or not they are ‘at the table’ is one of the more astute bits of political satire.  

ACT’s ever-eager David Seymour is well served by Hayden Frost, not least with his ‘I am the Very Model of a Kiwi Libertarian’. TOP’s Geoff Simmons (Hayden Frost again) offers a luvvie in-joke as he tries to ask us for improv offers and Gareth Morgan (Michael Trigg) delivers a well-wrought typical tirade.

It’d be no show without Peter Dunne (Alex Greig), whose star is definitely on the wane. Mentioned in dispatches but conspicuous by his absence is New Zealand First’s Winston Peters, although Ron Marks (Carrie Green) does try to fly the flag as best he can.

A prominent broadcaster has a recurring spot and quite why he gets into the state he does over the admittedly astonishing results of the election is a mystery to me, but it’s entertaining all the same. So too are the apparitions who appear – and as they too are not named in the programme I won’t give that away either.

Individually and as an ensemble the whole cast is terrific. The directors – Simon Leary, assisted by Anya Tate-Manning and Michael Trigg – ensure a dynamic pace with much physicality, abetted by operator Jennifer Lal’s astute wrangling of light and sound cues. Credited as the ‘Stylist’, Sasha Tilly’s selections of costume and wig elements bring welcome clarity to the ever-changing parade of characters.  

As usual I’d have liked the political satire to cut deeper, given the fearlessness implied by the No Fefe Collective’s branding (no fefe = no fear), but their publicity does also say, “The only political agenda for the show is laughter,” and it certainly generates plenty of that. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer