Review: Bogan Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at Hamilton Hill Memorial Hall
Bogan Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at Hamilton Hill Memorial Hall
Friday, July 26, 2024
Perth locals BS Productions brought another serve of the Bard, bogan style, with a 17-date regional and outer metro tour of Romeo and Juliet. Verona’s Capulets and Montagues were relocated to 2024 Ellenbrook, this time rent asunder betwixt West Coast and Fremantle on what was an actual Western Derby weekend.
As much an exercise in stripping back the source material to the bare essentials—five performers, eight characters, a runtime just over the hour—as much as it was a satirical update, Bogan Shakespeare did a fabulous job of knowing when to bring in the original text and when to extrapolate beyond. Often, when the words cleaved closest to Shakespeare’s own, the on-stage context at the time tweaked the interpretation to something far more modern.
The audience is introduced to fair Verona-on-Ellenbrook via a soundtrack of Australian pub rock classics, from Daddy Cool through Daryl Braithwaite to INXS, as we come upon our southern-crossed lovers in a blaze of the most deliberately basic sporting metaphors.
All the major beats of the original plot were touched on, but with all the sly humour of what admittedly remained a tragedy brought to the fore. At points, the writing leant heavily into meta-commentary, with the performers giving sideways winks and knowing smiles a mile wide. Romeo and Juliet, seemingly remade or reimagined several times a decade, easily lends itself to satire for the modern audience’s all-too-knowing sensibilities.
In Bogan Shakespeare, the permanence of marriage was switched up to the permanence of matching tattoos; banishment by the Prince was being barred from the local pub and sent to Rockingham; and most duelling was conducted with thongs. The Capulets, as the Eagles supporters in this tale, obviously had a mauseoleum on standby, probably in the western suburbs, for the third act denouement.
All performances on stage were strong, but a special mention goes to Maiken Kruger, who pulled double shift as Mercutio and (KFC Fryer) Laurence. Kruger played both roles with high energy and exuberance and interpreted Laurence as a cockney drug dealer with a heart of gold, a mix of Jason Statham-esque everyman with a dash of Monty Python ridiculousness.
Bogan Shakespeare was a vivid retelling of a centuries-old story and held up very well beyond merely the initial twist. Jokes poking fun at Bridgerton, the mining boom, and corporate boxes at the football all updated the piece to 2024, while the very next lines are often straight from the 1590s.
The strength of the writing, the performances, and the interplay with Shakespeare’s own words made this a quality evening out—a midwinter night’s dream, daresay. Having honed their craft for almost a decade, it will be a delight to see which play the team reinterprets next.
PAUL MEEK