The Culture Maker Of 2017: Hannah Gadsby's Masterful 'Nanette' Set The Tone For Year Of Social Defiance

Isn't it annoying when tradition gets in the way of progress? When out of date sensibilities that have no reasonable bearing on the present hold us back or even rob us of our freedoms? When arcane, ultra-conservative codes, no matter how redundant, are enforced with inflexible rigour? 

I'm talking, of course, about the dual citizenship scandals that have been picking off some of Australia's top pollies in recent months - at the time of publication, Pauline Hanson looked set to be the latest causality of the ongoing issue. While a "constitutional crisis" may be looming (whatever that means), there's a bittersweet irony in the complaints being raised by politicians like Hanson, Jacqui Lambie and Barnaby Joyce, declared ineligible to serve for not renouncing foreign ties. Their arguments against the constitution's traditions are identical to the rationale that has driven pleas for marriage law reform allowing same-sex couples to wed - reform that they have fiercely opposed. 

Not that this uncanny connection has likely occurred to many of our political elite. In fact, several instances have arisen this year that seem to imply a woeful lack of objectivity from Canberra. The marriage equality survey result is perhaps the most high-profile example, with the nation overwhelmingly barracking for the 'Yes' vote, much to the dismay, and we might also assume surprise, of career politicians who not only underestimated the attitudes of the country, but more specifically, their own constituencies (I'm looking at you, Tony).

The horrifying trampling of human rights unfolding on Manus Island since Australia shut its detention centre, leaving hundreds of refugees without basic sanitation, shelter, access to food or medical help, is another example. What possible motivation for falling so far on the wrong side of history could there be, except for some misguided belief that this shameful negligence might curry favour with an imagined electorate of heartless xenophobes. Growing protest movements mobilising across the country would beg to differ.

We could hope, that as we enter 2018, some of our political heavyweights might engage in a bit of reflection. They might even ponder, how they might better connect with their citizens. And if one of those politicians were ever to ask me how they could achieve this, I'd point them in the direction of the nearest comedy club.

2017 was always going to be a politicised year. Thanks to foreign calamities like Brexit and Donald Trump's election, a groundswell had begun, both toward a more right-wing worldview and away from it. But perhaps the most fascinating responses to the shifting political landscape came from the world of comedy. The acclaimed British comedy writer behind hit political parody The Thick Of It, Armando Iannucci, called time of death on the medium of satire in 2016, as the clownish stylings of Trump and closer to home the likes of Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter, had jumped the political shark while riding another shark (or in Katter's case, a crocodile). The reflexive action of our comedy scene was to sidestep comic responses altogether, and nowhere was this used more powerfully than in Hannah Gadsby's astonishing masterpiece, Nanette.

Ahead of the show's premiere, Gadsby pledged that it would be her last. Being at the top of her game, considered by peers and pundits to be in the prime of her career, news of the 39-year-old comedian's retirement made little sense. Since ambling onto the stand-up circuit in 2006, her star had been consistently on the rise, with award-wins, sell-out tours, international appearances and TV turns to prove it. It begged the question: what could make a performer at the peak of their powers choose to hang up the mic?

It started in August 2016, when Gadsby made a post to Facebook. In it, she had outlined her psychological traumas as a gay teen, growing up in Tasmania as the State voted to decriminalise homosexuality - amazingly, something that wasn't passed until 1999.

The post went viral, drawing news coverage both in Australia and overseas, and the same message, about the corrosive self-loathing felt by young LGBTQ people, dehumanised, devalued, and discarded by entrenched and normalised discrimination, became the foundation of Nanette.

There are laughs, for sure, but this is not a stand-up show in any traditional sense. It is a gut punch, a disgraceful history, an aching, devastating, galvanising call to action, a shattering revelation, and as defiant and relevant a piece of performance as has appeared on any Australian stage in years.

For those looking for conventional yardsticks, since its premiere last March, Nanette has won two of the biggest comedy awards in the world — The MICF Barry Award and the Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Award — and its tour has been extended several times, due to the colossal demand for tickets. But as Australia has faced surveys and propaganda, and as we've seen the many ways in which the value of certain lives have been diminished by action or inaction, it's become clear that the purpose of this show far surpasses these mere trinkets.

As soon as Nanette formally debuted at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in March, shockwaves seemed to radiate out. It may not have changed the polemic conviction of political comedy, but nonetheless, it acted as a proof of concept, that comedians could cement their existing position as the most astute commentators on our society's flaws. Amongst other honourable mentions, Josh Thomas's #TheyGetToVote hashtag offered a new perspective on the lunacy of asking a population to vote on the human rights of minorities, and the likes of Rhys Nicholson, Joel Creasy and the extraordinary Magda Szubanski, have used their mainstream profile to ensure that politicians are not the only voices heard in political discussions.

In 2018, there will, inevitably, be more causes that demand our fury and our compassion, but if our political establishment needed any pointers on how to better read the public spirit, I can only hope they caught Nanette before Hannah final stepped out of the spotlight for good.