Behind the Lines

Overview

You may think you've had enough politics after just following the state elections, let alone the last federal one, but for the political cartoonists with work in Behind the Lines at Parramatta's Riverside Theatre, the work is just getting started. Cartoonists were doomed to follow the last terrible government in intricate detail, and are fated to follow the terrible successor day by dusty day as well.

Although in some respects today's caricatures are actually much more tame than their historical predecessors, political cartoons have come a long way since the days of Hogarth. There are other programs that promise to take you behind the scenes in the cartoonist's studio, but none of them bring together the pure breadth, diversity and quality in the collection at Behind the Lines. And while good political cartoons aren't always funny, Behind the Lines' collection of contemporary satire keeps up a pretty good standard of chuckles if not as many out-and-out LOLs. Pyramid-nosed Gillards, long-suffering Abbotts and dour-faced — and faceless — numbers operators plaster the Parramatta walls. This suburb was the heart of last weekend's political victory, and no doubt tomorrow's political scandal. So get in its local spirit, and don't be the last in the conga-line of suckholes to check it out.

Behind the Lines is open 9-5 Monday to Friday, 9.30 - 1 on Saturdays and before performances at the Riverside.