Thouest gather around and I shall tell thee a tale. A tale of plots, thieves, miscreants and betrayal! A story by that most renowned of all playwrights. His work has been influential like none other, creating new words, new writing conventions and endlessly parodied. I’m talking of course of the… Sir Quentin Tarantino!
A group of anonymous mercenaries encircle one another at their hideout in the woods. Blaming each other for how their schemes have come undone. But there is only one true Judas in the pack responsible for this collapsing house of cards. The plan by Lord Joseph (Donna Prince) was sound, a raid on a scarcely protected coach transporting precious jewels. It was when the rogue of the group, Sir Blonde (Corey M. Glamuzina) began running through innocents that all hell broke loose. The crew scattered, chased by the law with little understanding of what just happened.
Now in their hideout, undercover cop Sir Orange (Elysia Janssen) bleeds out, Sir Pink (Rik Brown) points fingers and Sir White (Cassandra Hart), caring for Orange tries to act like a fuckin’ professional. As they await the return of the rest of their gang, tensions flair and blood is spilled. This simple robbery has turned into a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions!
Quentin Tarantino needs no introduction, but I like giving them anyway. With his 1992 breakout debut independent feature film, he immediately established himself as a dominant force in Hollywood. Inspired by the closing moments of Ringo Lam’s Hong Kong classic ‘City on Fire‘ as well as several other films, Reservoir Dogs was itself a revolutionary and ground breaking film which changed crime cinema forever.
In 2019 Rob Lloyd, artistic director of The Ghostlight League had a dream to independently produce a work of his own. Also inspired by films of the past, he envisioned lavish costumes, many actors and even puppets in some cases. This turned into a trilogy of Shakespearean reinterpretations of classic Hollywood films. It started with Shakespeare Aliens, continuing with Shakespeare Ghostbusters and now finally, The Ghostlight League reach the finale of their trifecta with William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs.
Unfortunately, I personally missed the previous two shows (although they come highly regarded by my colleagues). But Reservoir Dogs by its very framing and story feels perfectly ripe for “Shakespeare-isation”. Many of The Bard‘s plays mix comedy with tragedy, garrulous characters talking about (seemingly) nothing, betrayals and they often end with almost everyone dead too! So, it’s a match made in heaven.
The limited sets work as well with the play’s events being localised to only two. A tavern where all the jovial planning and meetings transpired, and the hideout in the woods after it’s all gone tits up. After all, Tarantino‘s film has always been considered one of the greatest ever heist films, despite never showing the actual “heist”!
Costumes provided by Donna Prince, Cassandra Hart and Rob Lloyd really shine in this production. The iconic black suits of the original film are recreated with frilly shirts and long coats, keeping with the colour schemes yet reinvented for a Shakespearean play. My personal favourite was the reimagining of the garishly multicoloured tracksuit jacket worn by ‘Nice Guy Eddie‘, here known as ‘Pleasant Fellow Edward’ (Jen Speirs). Before the characters have even said a word, fans of the film know precisely who most of them are simply by their familiar dress and how they hold themselves.
The dialogue of his films has always been Quentin Tarantino‘s most commendable talent. Syntax which flows beautifully and pop culture references worked into a script in such a way to feel, if not 100% natural, still pleasing to the ear. Here, the adaptation has been handled wonderfully by Stephen Hopley. Hopley actually presented this script way back in 2014 and it has been used in several other productions worldwide.
As with much Shakespearean dialect, it takes a keen ear to keep track of exactly what is being said and the meaning behind it. Yet for fans of Reservoir Dogs such as I, we already have the script for this classic etched permanently into our grey matter. The fun really comes from seeing just how close this performance can stick to that original script while completely reinventing it for a different style. Rapiers and daggers instead of guns, a barrel of flammable liquid instead of a petrol can…
The actors all do a magnificent job with such verbose dialogue and it’s really a testament to their abilities. I could recite Tarantino dialogue if need be, I’m sure many actors can do the same with Shakespeare‘s classics (it is often their go to when improvising). But to be able to ace such eloquently crafted tongue-tying dialogue far away from how we speak today, and yet sticking to Reservoir Dogs’ original, this is something incredible indeed.
I caught the closing night and as such, the performers were as well rehearsed as they were going to be. Not at a single point was a line noticeably flubbed or delivered with anything other than impeccable perfection. Of the three cast members, we see the most of Glamuzina as Sir Blonde who brings Michael Madsen‘s cockiness and cool psychopathy to the role. Rik Pink (née Brown) takes the part Steve Buscemi played and runs with it to a tee, keeping the same smarminess and desire for self-preservation. While Cassandra Hart plays Sir White as intensely as Harvey Keitel, trying to make sense of how everything turned to such a mess.
Much of the cast of a dozen when they are not in a scene acting, become part of the accompanying musicians. Now you CANNOT have any sort of homage to Tarantino without also having love for his soundtrack. Reservoir Dogs in particular features no actual musical score but it showed Tarantino‘s ability to create a perfect compilation of music to emphasise the overall style of his films.
All of that is as faithfully reinterpreted here as the dialogue. Where in the film the music was introduced by Steven Wright‘s ‘DJ K-Billy’, here the music comes from a troupe led by Key William, performed by Chloe Towan on her accordion. The memorable hits ‘Little Green Bag’, ‘I Gotcha’ and ‘Coconut’ all with recreated lyrics and sound on more period appropriate instruments. The highlight of course is the torture scene accompanied by Stealers Wheel’s ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ just as it was in the film itself. However, here it is played not on a radio but is performed by Key William who is pulled out from the side, hilariously paid for her discretion, and plays away as Sir Blonde tortures the ill-fated law officer!
An absolute treat for fans of Quentin Tarantino’s filmography and especially for those who appreciate his iconic film which started it all. With an amazing cast, terrifically reimagined music and a script that brings us everyone’s favourite scenes like you’ve never seen them before, The Ghostlight League have outdone themselves with William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs and the closing of their Shakespeare trilogy. I would love to see this again and I cannot wait to see what they work on next!
William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs had a run in Melbourne from October 29th to November 2nd at Irene Mitchell Studio. Unfortunately, the 2024 season is now over. However, for more information on The Ghostlight League‘s future shows, or to make enough noise for them to bring the show back, visit:
https://www.instagram.com/theghostlightleague
https://www.facebook.com/theghostlightleague
Photography by Tom Noble.