Bogan Shakespeare: Macbeth
Subiaco Arts Centre
Saturday, August 23 2025
“Spookily-doo!” Welcome to The Scottish Play, reimagined for an audience Down Under. The first twist? Those infamous three witches of yore didn’t last, as creative differences saw two leave to launch solo careers. A shrewd move given the entire cast consisted of only five.
But rather than the Caledonian highlands, our setting was the Ellenbrook Cricket Club, with the prize not the throne, but instead the club presidency.
Lords Banquo and Macbeth—Macca to his mates—entered the stage after a win over archrivals and rich pricks Sorrento. In the club rooms late at night for a cheeky cold one, the two friends crossed paths with Sabrina the Tuck-Shop Witch, the last remaining seer left to both inform the prophecies and lead the plot astray.
Macca shared these visions with his wife, Mrs. Macca, the brains and ambition of the pair, and, amid the ensuing hijinks, the stress of having murdered their way to the top careened towards meltdowns for them both. Most would already know the outline of the original tragedy, with the greater portion of the enjoyment here being how long-term Bard interpolators BS Productions tweaked the canon towards the more local working-class aesthetic.
Rhys Hyatt played Macca with a goofy ease, a man who knew he was not the smartest person in the room and was more than happy to be led by others’ suggestions. Towards the latter acts, surrounded and challenged by the rest of the sports committee, Hyatt displayed a convincing performative anger to such an extent that, during the climactic fight with Macduff, he busted a plugger that flew slowly, gracefully, even poetically into the crowd.
Dean Lovatt gave Duncan an accent that was an unholy mix of Matt Berry via Sir Patrick Stewart, continuing to commit to it until the character’s food allergies met multiple stab wounds. Almost immediately thereafter, Lovatt was back on stage as an investigating police officer, the line readings of CSI: Miami combined with the pitch-black ridiculousness of Heathers.
As Mrs. Macca, Kira Feeney exuded all the rat cunning somewhat unfairly expected of Lady M, both in her arguments over duty-free in Kuta on the girls’ Jetstar trip, as well as the trail of chaos she would encourage her husband to commence. Feeney was given a memorable death scene themselves, the infamous line “out damned spot” hilariously paired with the shiniest of cleaning product ads.
Plenty of other extremely Aussie motifs were woven into the evening. From the ceremonial assumption of the club presidency held at Hog’s Breath Café, through an ongoing joke related to peanut allergies and Nobby’s Nuts, to the possible/probable Kiwi origin of pavlova, never to be mentioned again.
The heightened existentialism of Banquo’s Ghost scene, now amongst the Tim Tams of the club bake sale, was also a delicious delight, as Macca tried to even out the guilt of his former friend’s death with Seinfeld-esque minutiae.
As with all grand works cut down to an hour, Bogan Shakespeare’s Macbeth did a lot of heavy lifting with narration and conveniently timed exposition. This approach can often freshen a piece and bring greater focus to the core themes—the trade-off is usually by sacrificing a large degree of character development. However, aimed as such a broad comedy, no-one in the round would surely have this as their first impression of the play. In the same role, interpreted far more seriously, both Denzel Washington and Michael Fassbender were just a streaming choice away.
This Subiaco version of Macbeth was another fabulous evening spent with a crew with an ever-expanding quality repertoire. It is an absolute pleasure to support local talent when they continue to operate at such a consistently high level. May the creative team’s reign last far longer than the cautionary tale of hubris and paranoia that had just tumbled before us.