Vizard and Grabowsky ask will the last 114 year-old digger please turn the lights out?

There have been umpteen plays, concerts and other events this year commemorating the Gallipoli centenary; so many, it seems, that several TV dramas and documentaries ended up attracting considerably smaller audiences than expected. But The Last Man Standing, a riotous new comedy by Steve Vizard with music by Paul Grabowsky, is “an antidote”, says Roger Hodgman, to what some have dubbed “Gallipoli fatigue”.

“It’s a welcome coda to all the celebrations of Gallipoli this year. Steve is a very funny writer and there’s some terrific satire about the way various people have jumped on the bandwagon and tried to appropriate Gallipoli for different ends – political, financial, whatever.”

“It starts off being very funny but there’s a serious streak through it and it finishes up being incredibly respectful. But in the midst of it, this fun story emerges,” says Hodgman.

Presented by Melbourne Theatre Company, The Last Man Standing will premiere, fittingly enough, on November 11 – Remembrance Day. Set here and now, Colonel Raymond Hope, a hero of the Afghanistan campaign, has been appointed to take charge of a Gallipoli centennial concert. But arriving at...