Review by Paul Worts, London Film Critic

June, 2014

Billy Shakespeare: Bard to the Future

Written and directed by self-confessed Shakespeare ‘groupie’ Deborah Voorhees, Billy Shakespeare is a modern-day love letter to the immortal bard delivered in an envelope of sideswiping parody at Hollywood.

Placing William Shakespeare in modern-day L.A., the film explores the artistic conflicts that inevitably come into play when high art meets low-brow film-making; where the bottom line is box-office bucks rather than poetic prose. Against this back-drop we are treated to a love-triangle where our pointy bearded bard, played by Jason D. Johnson, juggles his affections back and forth between his long-term girlfriend Anne Hathaway (Catharine Pilafas) and Wilma Hartford (Phillip David Collins), a drag queen.

The stage, or rather the screen is therefore set for farce to ensue, and ensue it doth, most notably in a bedroom scene involving all three players, the timing of which is played to perfection.

So amongst this heady brew of confused sexuality, cross-dressing and mistaken identity, how do the three main leads rise (as it where) to the challenge? In truth for sooth all three are excellent. Mr Johnson is pleasingly bemused by all the shenanigans going on around him (despite being the catalyst) whilst at times his comic expressions appear very Bill Bailey*-like. Catharine Pilafas is both sexy and sympathetic as the bard’s long-suffering girlfriend in a role that could easily have been swamped by the eye-grabbing performances of her fellow cast members. And Phillip David Collins’ performance as drag queen Wilma negotiates the tightrope without falling off into either overt campiness or caricature.

Whilst watching this still rough cut version of the film at The Misty Moon Gallery it occurred to me that here you have all the ingredients of an early Pedro Almodóvar comedy. Perhaps it’s tantamount to treason or sacrilege to suggest the immortal bard’s trials and tribulations are transposed to Spain and the Spanish dialogue subtitled for English-speaking audiences, but hey, if Shakespeare can travel through both time and across the Atlantic – then surely anything’s possible right?

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