Bogan Shakespeare Presents: Macbeth

I often lament that Shakespeare is no longer prescribed curriculum learning and accept the palatability of it for modern audiences, but BS (actually could have a double meaning) have nailed a totally irreverent re-telling of the bard’s 1606 classic, Macbeth. Eat your heart out cinema legends including Denzel Washington, Sean Connery and Patrick Stewart, Bogan Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the same Shakespearean plot we know and love, but 420 years on, writer and director Dean Lovatt has relocated it to lovely downtown Burnside Cricket Club, and boy, does that make the ladies’ pearls rattle?

Featuring a rotating cast of Western Australian talent, including an excellent performance by  Rhys Hyatt as (Macca) Macbeth, Maiken Kruger as Lady Macca (Lady Macbeth) and Dean Lovatt (po-faced Narrator and Club President Duncan amongst other characters) with, Jess Lally and Dawson Andrew, put a capital B in the word bogan. Replete with almost every cringeworthy stereotypical Aussie bad taste article, and character, we have rubber thongs, mullets, singlets and checked shirts as formal wear, along with expressions including, sinking a bevvy’, from the Esky and presented, of course, in personal neoprene stubby holders’. But wait, there’s more. We are reminded that ‘We all love to have a beer with Duncan’, but need to murder him, Nutri-bullets can be officially regarded as a ‘murder weapon’ and no Australian parody is complete without a well-cast Sharon.

Suffice to say, and at times I did not know how, but the play does actually tell you the Shakespearian tale. Building on former successes King Lear, Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet, this company has created an hilarious, thoroughly researched and highly entertaining piece. It is a fine example of how clever writing, coupled with Australian humour is a magic formula for skilled performers to entertain and uplift an audience. I can hardly wait to see which classic is chosen next for a ‘true blue’ makeover!

Using minimal staging and props, this clever romp is showing at the Tandanya Theatre, and I am reminded that it is an under-used, flexible and welcoming performance space.

Jude Hines

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