Worst Side Story

The concept behind Worst Side Story may be one of the most elegant fringe show ideas you’ve ever heard. Its creators, Brandon Mannarino and Leigh Qurban, had never seen West Side Story and, for that reason, they adapted it. Their piece’s self-reflexivity and self-deprecation mean that it is not just a parody of the original. Rather, it is a playful parody of its creators and their process. This proves both entertaining and deeply rewarding.

If you’ve seen West Side Story you can probably predict what Worst Side Story might look like. If you haven’t then let it suffice to say that the latter piece is, partially, an exaggeration of generic love story tropes. However, this only describes one of the piece’s mimetic levels. Intercut with the vague reimagining of West Side Story is a fictionalised account of the creative process behind it. This self-reflexivity defines the piece.

While self-reflexivity is usually employed to reflect on a work’s artful process of creation, Mannarino and Qurban employ it here to reflect on their work’s artless process of creation. This is perhaps the most important method of deriving humour in the piece. Even the most juvenile jokes within the adaptation (or parody) of West Side Story become deeply entertaining in the context of the artists’ self-aware ignorance.

The theatrical and filmic realisation of the concept is, not dazzling, but perfectly fitting. The scenes that focus of the creation of Worst Side Story seem to be shot, on a camcorder, with little to no regard for cinematography. This lack of production values imbues the faux-documentary with more verisimilitude than can be seen anywhere else in the play. After all, this is the story of two hopeless artists. Likewise, the shoddy theatricality is very realistic.

Considering how crucial the flaws of the production are to its success, there is only one criticism that can be levelled at it: Worst Side Story could have gone further. Its concept is genius. Adapting not from West Side Story but some vague and indeterminate space laterally opposed to it should have provided the writers with a brilliant opportunity to create a text with some originality. No text exists in a vacuum, but Mannarino and Qurban managed to create their own little pocket-sized simulacrum of one. Instead of using this basis to its ultimate extent they settle into parody. Of course, it is a clever, self-deprecating form of parody, and is deeply entertaining, but there are so many places this concept could be taken.

That, however, is a minor theoretical issue that shouldn’t detract from the show as it is: self-deprecating, self-reflexive, and hilarious. Its season at the Adelaide Fringe may be over but it definitely merits seeing if it is reprised. Worst Side Story is crass, over-the-top and more than clever enough to make that work.

Worst Side Story has finished its run at the Adelaide Fringe, but they are hoping to stage it in Melbourne in the future.