And so we came to the final part of Justin Hamilton’s monumentally stunning Trilogy. As we entered the Council Chambers, we heard the pre show music. For Melbourne it was The Beatles (St Pepper), for Laugh and Death it was The Beach Boys (Pet Sounds) and at last for Hamilton and His Sisters it was David Bowie (it had to be), Justin’s favourite musician. The song ‘Time’ set the main theme for this episode.
He walked on stage and took up the story immediately. He felt like he was living in a time loop of pain and grief going over and over the recent past. To get out of this he travelled even further into his past, back to Adelaide, where the Trilogy began and where he had been invited by his primary school to be part of the opening of a time capsule his class buried 30 years ago.
Going back to Adelaide opened up a sort of time capsule in Justin’s brain as he led us through tales of his childhood and teens in Adelaide. He loved primary school with a similar passion to that which he gave Melbourne in his first show, and he took delight in introducing us to his teachers and other students with funny stories about them all. One hilarious story in particular was retold from the first part of the Trilogy, which was a surprise, but of course there was a reason with its importance revealed at the end.
The significance of the title of this one was not as obvious as with the first two, if you were expecting to meet Justin’s sisters in Adelaide, you will be disappointed; he’s an only child. The sisters were represented by significant women in his life, including his very cool, but disciplinarian mum, the curiously grumpy Caliope and an old flame he meets up with called Nilani. I must admit to being a little disappointed at the non-appearance by Clowny Queen of Bongs, who is hinted at in the programme, maybe her story requires an entire show of its own. The structure of the whole of Three Colours Hammo, though, was comparable to that of Hannah and Her Sisters, with the comfort and annoyances of home at each end and a scary brush with mortality at it’s centre.
The trilogy comes to the conclusion with the opening of two time capsules, one is Caliope’s Ipod and the other is at his primary school and contains a letter written to himself from himself. Justin’s ending really emphasises the filmic qualities of the Trilogy with a flashback of all the poignant scenes in random order that build and move forward from the past into the future until finally the stage goes dark and we hear the song that Justin told Caliope he wanted played at his funeral:‘Life on Mars’.
Whatever you do, don’t miss the final part of the trilogy, especially if you have seen the previous two, but it’s a great show even if you haven’t. Three Colours Hammo will be the overriding happy memory of my 2007 Festival experience; I hope it will be yours too. If you have missed them so far, you have another chance when Justin puts in a bravado performance of the whole trilogy in one afternoon at Trades Hall on Saturday the 28th of April. There will be free tea! Go to “Comedy at Trades”:https://www.comedyattrades.com.au/program_guide/show_113/ for full details.
Hamilton and His Sisters runs nightly until April 29. See the “Festival Website”:http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/season/2007/show/317/ for booking details.