I’m not sure John Wayne or Clint Eastwood would agree, but there’s always been something a bit camp about the Western to me. All that overcompensating masculinity, musky leather, nifty rope work and cocked guns. If it always seemed bit much, saddle-spread legs akimbo and all, then there was also the not-so-small matter of the icky genocide apology built into the idea that cowboys = good, First Nations Americans = bad, to contend with too.
Which is why the idea of fabulous drag cabaret crew Yummy rewiring the genre through a queer and POC prism for Melbourne Fringe was a big YES from me. And spaghetti western spoof Yummy: How to Make a Western does not disappoint. While it sure would have been great to see their handbags at high noon in a packed gay bar, thanks to slick cinematography from Chris Bennett, special effects including scratchy sepia intertitle cards and impressive lighting design by Jacinta Anderson, the now ubiquitous pivot to digital was still a hoot.
How to Make a Western is narrated by Tiwi drag superstar Foxxy Empire, who while sporting an Aboriginal Flag dress with tassel-fringed cowboy shirt accoutrements and natty Dame Edna-style glasses uses sharp-shootin’ sass to dismantle the genre’s creaky colonial narrative with the sort of amiable, knowing wink that leaves no room for foolish dissension. Drawing clear parallels with the ‘founding’ of here and the States, it’s the kind of frank but fun history lesson that should play out in all classrooms.
The message is clear, but there’s no soap boxing here. It’s a rollicking romp that makes the most of the daft wild west tropes, replete with cardboard cut-out cacti (plus kangaroos and dingoes) and a paper trail of train tracks just waiting for Bendy Ben aka ‘The Widow’ to be tied helpless to in black lingerie. The whip-cracking cast includes Aysha Buffet as KFC Colonel analogue Big Daddy in a white suit with black laced tie, Jandruze as the Red Bellied Bitch Snake who knows just how to work prison bars, and a lampshade-hatted Zelia Rose in the duelling dual role of both the Outsider and the White Bandit. But the biggest guffaw of all goes to the balloon-bosomed Valerie Hex as Belle, a woman for whom no vegetation is too big to, err, tackle.
Working a Calamity Jane vibe, it’s glorious chaos that pairs the classic Ennio Morricone whistling Western score with a genre-smashing jukebox selection including Nancy Sinatra’s Bond theme ‘You Only Live Twice’, Lana Del Ray’s ‘Mermaid Motel’, Kesha’s ‘Boots’ and ‘Freaky Friday’ from high-energy 90s outfit Aqua. And who hasn’t got time for that? Ride ‘em, cow non-binaries.