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Students produce a number of comedy revues at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia each year. Written and performed by students, the shows comment satirically on current affairs, pop culture, dating and university life. They feature song parodies, short sketches, video segments and dance numbers. The first revue at the university, entitled Low Notes, was organised by the Students' Union in 1956. The first revue by the UNSW Medical Society Revue, held in 1975, was entitled Rumpleforeskin and was quickly followed by the UNSW Law Revue Society's The Assault and Battery Operated Show.
Contents
Shows are typically named with a pun on a then-current pop culture reference: usually a movie but computer games, political slogans, television shows and books have also featured.
Since 1975, revues from the Law, Built Environment and Arts faculties, the School of Computer Science, and the university's Jewish community, have all been held.
Operationally, each of the three largest revues (Med, Law and CSE) is a club affiliated to UNSW Arc and subject to the latter's oversight. Revues retain their institutional memory through 'old revuers', participants who come back year after year. Former directors are often invited back to perform voice-overs and critique shows before they go to stage.
Arts & Social Sciences Revue
An Arts & Social Sciences Revue was held in 2006, entitled It's Time. Arts Revue returned in 2013 and again in 2014, entitled 10 Things I Hate About Arts Revue
Other shows
"Best of" revues typically combine selected material from previous shows, sometimes updated or adapted to take into account the intervening period of time. A "Best of" show, featuring material from both Med Revues and Law Revues from the years 1984-1989, was held in the Bondi Pavilion in 1990. The show was called A Fabulous Set of Steak Knives. A "Best of" called Heart Rate High: the Bex Years of Our Lives was held at the Figtree Theatre in 1996, but covered material from Med Revues only from 1990-1995. In 1998, a show was put on by revuers off-campus called Dead Fish are Fun, which featured some material from past Law and Med Revues, as well as original material. In 2001, a "Best of" show called Comedy for the Chemical Generation was held at the Figtree theatre covering material from Med Revues 1996-2000.
In 2006, Law & Orderlies, a "Best of" show covering both Med and Law Revue, was held at the Figtree Theatre. The bulk of material was drawn from Revues from 2000–2005, however the show also featured sketches from Med Revue 1975, Law Revue 1989, and Law Revue 1998.
In 2011, another "Best of" show was staged, again in the Fig Tree Theatre. The title of the show was "Deja Revue", and featured content mostly from 2006 - 2010 Med & Law Revues. The show had a 4 night run, and sold out every single seat for every single night, before the curtain had even opened on the first night.
In 2012, CSE Revue held their first "Best of" show, featuring the best sketches from the previous 10 shows.
Other revues at the university are held from time to time: students from New College, the Faculty of the Built Environment and the university's Buddhist club organise smaller-scale shows. Sketch comedy shows have also been hosted by the New South Wales University Theatrical Society (NUTS), the UNSW comedy club Studio Four, and other groups. A medical-student-only production called UNSW Medshow (or sometimes Med Show) was established in 2000 by former Med Revuer Neil Jeyasingam after he failed to be elected Med Revue director, Med Show has been held annually since. The Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), which is part of the university, has put on revues in the past (notably 1997 and 1998). They are not widely advertised outside the AGSM community and are normally held for one night only.