Bogan Shakespeare comes to Geraldton with impossible love story between warring Dockers & Eagles families

Promising a satirical spin on a heartbreaking classic, Bogan Shakespeare is coming to the Queens Park Theatre next Saturday, July 20, telling the story of forbidden love through the lens of Aussie culture. A pair of star-crossed lovers. One from an Eagles supporting family from the northern suburbs and another from a Dockers family from south of the river. What could go wrong? The play is a take on Romeo and Juliet but writer Dean Lovatt has been putting his spin on it for nine years. During that period, Lovatt has adapted six Shakespearean plays through the bogan lens. “The show really is all about having a laugh at ourselves. And I think no one does that better than Australians,” Lovatt said. The 60-minute show gets the local treatment, with jokes and landmarks rewritten to be relevant to each tour location. The tour is stopping at 16 locations across the State, including Cue, Dongara and Geraldton. “We’ve grown in WA because of people supporting us in WA, so we always said we wanted to do a tour here before we go over east,” Lovatt said. The show involves a cast of five, with two main characters who stay in one role for the entire play and three actors who changes roles throughout the course of the show. “We’ve definitely established the convention in our shows that a different-coloured flanno means a different character,” Lovatt said. After having put the Romeo and Juliet script to the side for four years, Lovatt said it has been the pick of the litter to take to the regions. “We want to bring the original show to these audiences,” he said. Bogan Shakespeare presents Romeo and Juliet is on at the QPT on Saturday, July 20, from 7.30pm.