Swamplesque 2 at Regal Theatre
Friday, May 8, 2026<\/p>\n
There\u2019s something deeply funny about watching a heritage theatre surrender itself entirely to swamp logic. Beneath the ornate surrounds of Regal Theatre, the final performance of Swamplesque 2\u2014or Far Far Away, as the crowd enthusiastically cheered for during the opening\u2014arrived less like a conventional comedy show and more like a full-scale camp occupation.<\/p>\n
After a 17-week run following Fringe World, the audience entered already primed, packed shoulder-to-shoulder for the show, vibing to Hot in Herre before the cast had even appeared. Unlike the original Fringe incarnation\u2014staged through and amongst the crowd with gleeful disregard for personal space\u2014this version was forced into a more traditional theatrical frame at the Regal. Some intimacy was inevitably lost, particularly for those stranded in the back corners, but the production compensated with sheer scale and rolling communal energy.<\/p>\n
From the opening sequence of Shrek and Fiona in blissful boudoir drag, bouncing in synchronised tit-jiggling harmony with twirling pasties, the room understood the assignment. The body-positive tone landed immediately without drifting into self-seriousness; the crowd\u2019s shrill cheers rang out like genuine collective lust.<\/p>\n
Loosely tethered to Shrek 2, the plot here operated primarily as connective tissue between increasingly unhinged musical numbers, costume reveals and theatrical escalation. The arrival of the horn trio in red sequinned assless chaps instantly whipped the audience into delirium, particularly with Matthew Pope\u2019s breakaway rogue trumpeter lifted directly from the film. Donkey\u2019s largely wordless entrance garnered equally explosive applause before the cast launched headlong into Funky Town.<\/p>\n
If anything, Swamplesque 2 leant harder into the deliberately ramshackle nature of cabaret spectacle. Fiona\u2019s mother peeling away layers of gown during Killer Queen to unveil a fuchsia vaudeville-style wings routine felt simultaneously glamorous and gloriously messy, while the Fairy Godmother\u2019s latex beekeeper-cum-jellyfish backup dancers pushed things into outright fever dream territory.<\/p>\n
Tash York returned in a different role this time around, transforming the Fairy Godmother into a boozy cabaret tyrant somewhere between lounge singer, drag matriarch and Lady Gaga at her most theatrically unhinged. \u201cEverything I do is for the gays,\u201d she declared to enormous cheers before masticating her way through an anxiety-eating scene involving a Friar Tuck\u2019s Uber Eats bag, berating Harold with her mouth full in a grotesquely funny recreation of the film\u2019s passive-aggressive politics.<\/p>\n
Matthew Pope\u2019s Prince Charming emerged as one of the production\u2019s undeniable standouts. Aside from a somewhat limp blonde wig lacking the flowing majesty the role demanded, Pope weaponised hyper-masculine posturing with astonishing comic precision. His transition into Untouched by The Veronicas drew one of the loudest crowd reactions of the night; the quasi-nude acrobatics elevating the sequence beyond parody into something one could only marvel at.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the production repeatedly found inventive ways to amplify minor film characters into scene-stealers. The Ugly Stepsister\u2019s dramatic tango sequence recast Harold as Roxanne from Moulin Rouge! with flamenco melodrama. Further spirals into absurdity followed, with King Harold\u2019s frog transformation in green bondage lingerie, pissing into the front rows while performing ludicrous choreography. Puss in Boots, notably taller than Harold, performed She Bangs complete with cat-nipple pasties, hairballs and deeply cursed tail choreography, while the show\u2019s nods to The Substance and the immortal \u201csucculent Chinese meal\u201d meme landed perfectly with the audience. One of the night\u2019s biggest moments arrived with Fiona\u2019s powerhouse rendition of Where Is My Husband!\u00a0by RAYE\u2014already such a gigantic song in itself that the room practically detonated around it.<\/p>\n
Not every gag landed equally. The repeated wanking gestures eventually tipped from transgressive into repetitive, and the giant gingerbread man sequence proved slightly disappointing after how gorgeously realised the character was in the original production. Still, by the standing ovation\u2014a literal rolling thunder of foot-stomping applause\u2014the atmosphere inside the Regal had shifted into something genuinely communal.<\/p>\n
After explaining that productions like this rarely receive meaningful arts funding, the cast jokingly appealed directly to Gina Rinehart for sponsorship\u2014\u201dGina, please! You\u2019re fat as well!\u201d\u2014a spectacularly Perth collision of class satire, body politics and unapologetic camp.<\/p>\n
As the crowd spilt into the foyer, dancing to Hey Baby, Swamplesque 2 had already achieved its real trick: transforming collective embarrassment into collective liberation.<\/p>\n
CAT LANDRO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swamplesque 2 at Regal TheatreFriday, May 8, 2026 There\u2019s something deeply funny about watching a heritage theatre surrender…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[335],"class_list":{"0":"post-11226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-perth","8":"tag-perth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}