The classic Australian beer Victoria Bitter is bogan culture distilled into dark brown bottles – and as the audience entered the theatre for A Night of Rock and Roll with Bogan Villea, its logo was the first thing they saw draped across the stage.
Only, a second look revealed that it wasn’t. The letters were transposed – BV not VB – in a cheeky nod to the show’s creator and star, Northern Territory-born drag queen Bogan Villea.
Bogan Villea (aka Ben Graetz) is no stranger to the Sydney Festival. Last year, he wowed audiences with his love letter to Tina Turner in Tina – A Tropical Love Story.
Now he’s back with a love letter to the distinct, often self-deprecating Australian subculture lampooned and celebrated in television shows such as Kath & Kim.
Rock and Roll with Bogan Villea review – quick links
A love letter to bogan culture
While some might sneer at bogan culture, Graetz revels in it. A Night of Rock and Roll with Bogan Villea is a tour through said culture’s soundtrack: the kind of music you’d hear on Triple M.
Graetz went all-out for the opening, setting the scene with a drag rendition of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. A slew of Oz rock favourites followed – some lip-synced, some performed live by Graetz and his guests – including tracks by Divinyls, INXS and Midnight Oil.
Bogan classics from overseas were represented too, with Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N’ Roses, The Final Countdown by Europe and, of course, a Tina Turner number, Steamy Windows, also making the cut.
Various props (goon bag, anyone?) amped up the bogan elements. A mullet competition, where audience members with mullets were brought up from the crowd, was great fun. But this wasn’t just some naff tribute to bogan culture. Interspersed between the songs were stories from Graetz’s childhood in Humpty Doo and Darwin, and observations on Australia Day.
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When Graetz spoke of being a little boy in 1988, hearing former Prime Minister Bob Hawke promise a Treaty with Indigenous Australians at the Barunga Festival, the room felt collective sorrow for the covenant that never came.
Feeding off the energy, Graetz took the stage for a powerful drag interpretation of Midnight Oil’s Beds are Burning, ripping his wig off and channelling a bald Peter Garrett in spellbinding scenes.
A talented troupe
But while Bogan Villea/Graetz was ringmaster, the show was very much a collaboration; the product of multiple Indigenous artists including Tyra Bankstown, Dyagula, Cleopatra Pryce and Eli Crawford.
An early highlight was Ursula Yovich’s live rendition of Divinyls’ Science Fiction and Boys in Town. Donning a schoolgirl’s outfit, in a nod to late Divinyls frontwoman Chrissy Amphlett, Yovich’s voice was plaintive and powerful.
Another highlight was Scott Hunter’s spine-tingling rendition of Never Tear Us Apart by INXS. Hunter’s live vocals brought new colour to the famous song, his cadence both echoing and building on memories of Michael Hutchence. Hunter’s physicality, sinewy and smooth, had the room swooning.
Unlike Yovich and Hunter, Tiny Tina lip-synced and strutted her way through her contribution – Tina Turner’s Steamy Windows – but that in no way detracted from a sizzling performance which showed just how powerful drag can be.
Dana Dizon, as choreographer, pulled the performers together into a tight, dazzling unit.
Social justice at the heart of the night
Social justice messaging – particularly the need for reconciliation between Australia’s original inhabitants and its newcomers – informed the show. But it didn’t overwhelm it. It wasn’t didactic. Instead, it was heartfelt and appropriate.
There were plenty of laughs too, lovingly drawing on bogan themes – and let’s face it, people are at their most open and receptive to social messaging when they’re laughing.
Comparisons with an artist’s previous work are inevitable – and arguably the narrative elements of A Night of Rock and Roll with Bogan Villea weren’t quite as strong as those of Tina – A Tropical Love Story. But Graetz and co have once again pulled off a beguiling mix of cabaret, drag, social justice and above all, fun.
