The President review – Hugo Weaving satire verges on an endurance test

Sydney Theatre Company
Weaving delivers a funny, commanding performance but this rarely performed 1975 Thomas Bernhard play feels neither relevant nor prescient

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“Politics is the highest form of art, my child,” the titular sleazy and bombastic president tells his actress mistress in this rarely performed Thomas Bernhard play from 1975. “The art of acting comes right after.”

This president is the leader of a small, unnamed European country, hiding away on Portugal’s coast from gossips, anarchists and a murderous son after yet another attempted assassination. His megalomania is ripe, in a time when some of our more shameless leaders perform like old troupers.