1960
Dame Edna costume
A vulture of paradise
Dame Edna Everage poses against a red backdrop in a pink beaded gown with gladioli attached around the neckline. She is wearing diamante-studded glasses. The gown was worn for her 1985 show, Tears before Bedtime.
Barry Humphries’ early dreams of being a painter fell by the wayside when he discovered he had a talent for dadaist art. He often performed his art on Melbourne public transport, where he disturbed commuters with stunts in which he pretended to eat his own vomit or assaulted the blind. ‘I don’t know why I like shocking people,’ Humphries told New Yorker critic John Lahr. ‘I think it just gave me a sense of identity. I guess it gave me a sense of power too, because I felt rather powerless and swamped by – well, the dullness of Melbourne.’
On a tour of Twelfth Night through regional Victoria, Humphries created his housewife character Edna Everage. He was encouraged to develop Edna further by Ray Lawler, author of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, and then Australia’s pre-eminent playwright. She made her debut on 19 December 1955, discussing the imminent arrival of foreign athletes at the 1956 Olympics and the possibility of billeting one at her home – number 36 Humouresque Street, Moonee Ponds.
Edna, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Humphries’ mother, came out of his deep ambivalence towards and hatred of the suburban ‘wildlife’ in Melbourne. ‘Edna was conceived to remind Australians of their bigotry,’ Humphries said. ‘She was a rebuke. She was a silly, bigoted, ignorant, self-satisfied Melbourne housewife.’ But people loved her. One part of the audience laughed at her silly affectations and the other part identified with her.
In 1960 Humphries made the obligatory move to London to try his luck. He was ‘discovered’ by comedian Peter Cook and given a season at Cook’s club, The Establishment. Humphries brought out a range of character studies to very bad notices but to the delight of Cook.
Humphries slotted into the London comedy scene and almost joined the Monty Python gang. The Python sketches about idiot Australians named Bruce were originally written as ‘Barry’ but were changed to protect Humphries’ feelings.
Humphries excelled at one-man revues and through them all, Edna Everage endured. Her fame grew exponentially through the 1970s, when something about her garish and superficial personality made her a Zeitgeist figure. With success came ever more glamorous costumes and a number of TV specials and talk shows. Dame Edna, as she became, described herself as a ‘Housewife and Superstar’. And she was.
Over 50 years she evolved and changed. Shaking off the timid but proud housewife from suburban Melbourne like a yellow-bellied black snake loses its skin, she blossomed. Still deeply nasty, narcissistic and cruel, she became increasingly sophisticated and complex.
The key to Edna, as Lahr put it, is ‘lowbrow antics with highbrow aesthetics’. Humphries began his working life with paint and an easel and that may still be his ultimate bliss. However, he needs neither of these. Barry Humphries is already one of Australia’s most celebrated artists.