The prospect of Shakespeare at the Fringe is often met with a due sense of trepidation. It’s difficult to feel enthralled at the prospect of a group of first-year drama students mumbling a Sparknotes version of Hamlet in front of gaffer-taped black tabs. To do something memorable with Shakespeare in an hour arguably takes a special leap of imagination, and talented company Straylight Australia have managed just that with Shakespeare’s Queens, a whistlestop tour of the Bard’s Royals, real and fictional, that pays homage without being precious and entertains without being cheap.
The show is a fanciful dramatisation of a post-death experience for William Shakespeare. In some unexplained theatrical limbo, the great playwright meets two bickering Queens from history, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Faced with a dispute between the two Queens about which of them was the better ruler, Shakespeare attempts to mediate by taking them through the many, many Queens who have featured in his plays. And so the three discuss and perform as Shakespeare’s Queens, taking on every role themselves, slipping from idle banter to iambic pentameter in the quickest of flashes. Though the show never feels rushed, it moves at quite a pace, since there’s a lot of ground to cover. Straylight Australia push to the upper limits of their allotted runtime, and if you aren’t paying attention the lightning-quick scene changes may leave you behind.
Kath Perry, who also wrote the bits of the show not written by Shakespeare, is enjoyably imperious as Elizabeth I. Patrick Trumper portrays Shakespeare as a simple working man, thrilled and flattered to hear that his plays are still being read and performed today. Trumper is so likeable in fact that you easily forgive the slightly cheap device that allows him to slip into his natural Aussie brogue for most of the performance. He’s also clearly a versatile actor: his classically nasty Richard III comes as a delightful surprise after spending so much time with his friendly, genial Shakespeare. As Mary Queen of Scots, still clearly not over the whole ‘beheading’ issue, Rachel Ferris snags most of the big laughs with some excellent facial expressions and good comic timing.
What comes across most throughout the hour is the wealth of love on display. The performers are distilling Shakespeare because they love it and wish to share it, and it’s something special to behold. Accessible to Bard aficionados and novices alike, this is definitely recommended.
