Do you find Shakespeare hard to get into? Having traumatic highschool flashbacks from just the sight of his name? Think the ideas and storylines are archaic?
Well shush, you’re wrong.
BS Productions is back for their ninth consecutive year with King Lear. This show has been tailored to a Perth audience.
So much so, that a lot of the jokes went over our heads – we’re not ashamed to admit that.
But boy, did the crowd love it. There were multiple moments when the cast needed to stop dialogue to allow the crowd to laugh it out.
We went on a Thursday night, and it was a solid crowd for the day of the week. Sat in the stalls in the Heath Ledger theatre, we were cosy and surrounded by packed seats.
The production is camp and high energy, giving us ‘kids performing for their mates at school’ vibes. This isn’t what we were expecting but the crowd, and a local mate we went with, ate it up.
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Recontextualised, kingdoms replaced by Cicerello’s and Joe’s Fish Shack, and rewritten into Aussie vernacular, expect a lot of swearing, this is Shakespeare like you’ve not seen before.
Favourite moments? Sarria had a huge laugh at a character completely breaking the fourth wall, going incredibly meta for a moment before remembering himself, and ‘tying himself back up’.
Amanda lost her s**t at a theatre-related joke that hit so well. A seagull. That’s all we’re telling you, because the surprise was worth it.
All-in-all, this wasn’t our favourite show, but we know that’s from our knowledge of Perth. So if you’re a local and want some topical, relatable jokes, go go go!
Take our star rating with a grain of salt, as our Perthie friend who accompanied us gave it 5!
Three words: Digestible, local and in-jokes.
Amanda⭐⭐ Sarria ⭐⭐⭐