Who would have thought mashing up Shakespeare and Quentin Tarantino’s violent, quotable 1992 directorial debut would work?

Sydney Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Steven Hopley, that’s who. His witty, learned adaptation premiered in Sydney in 2014.

Since then William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs has been performed a handful of times, from Florida to The Ghostlight League production at Melbourne’s little St Martin’s Theatre two years ago.

Their minimalist take directed by Rob Lloyd is back, at the larger Theatre Works. There’s a swaggering appeal about the generous cast’s interpretation, but sound problems slightly mar the enjoyment (on opening night at least).

William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs. Photo © Tom Noble

Tarantino’s LA diamond-heist-gone-wrong film gathers several strangers mostly only known by codenames like Mr Brown and Mr Blue. As their situation grows desperate, they suspect there’s an informant among them; indeed Mr Orange is an undercover cop.

William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs is a fairly close 80-minute adaptation set in Elizabethan England, with the likes of Sir Pink and Pleasant Fellow Edward (for the original’s Nice Guy Eddie) wielding rapiers instead of guns – which makes the four-way Mexican stand-off a highlight.

Impressive Shakespearean scholarship drives Hopley’s script, which includes many appropriate phrases and short passages lifted from The Bard; one scene ends neatly with the inevitable “let slip the dogs of war”, for example. Otherwise the film’s dialogue is deftly Elizabethanised, sometimes heavily, sometimes with the lightest touch, such as “I need thee to be cool.”

The five musicians led by Musical Director Chloe Towan also Elizabethanise the 1970s soundtrack, plus a bonus opening number: Madonna’s Like a Virgin from 1984, which helps set the scene for the crooks’ argument about what the song means, and kicks the play off with upbeat, anachronistic fun.

Playing a mix of period-appropriate instruments such as mandolin and riddle drum, and a few slightly newer ones that don’t sound out of place including accordion, the band rejig songs like the infamous torture scene’s Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel (“fools to the left of me, jesters to the right”!).

Supported by the musicians in bit-parts, the seven-strong cast are at ease with the text, their roles and each other – which makes the tavern banter scenes especially enjoyable.

William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs. Photo © Tom Noble

Production designer and co-producer Cassandra Hart is steadfast and serious as Sir White, while Elysia Janssen dissembles and suffers agonies as Sir Orange. In contrast to the psychopathic original, there’s an air of queer dandy about Corey Glamuzina’s Sir Blonde, while Seon Williams’s makes Sir Pink unexpectedly steely.

In a black space bare but for a rudimentary set of wooden palettes, and lit by Patrick Slee, the players wear pirate shirts, dark frock coats, skinny black jeans and high boots. The look is about a century too late (lovers of TV’s Upstart Crow may regret the lack of “puffling pants”), but it succeeds in taking the audience back in time on a budget.

Perhaps inevitably, the film’s dramatic moments are diminished by the ever-present aural and visual mash-up charm of William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs.

Another minor adaptation flaw are the flashback scenes, which can’t rely on cinematic devices for logical context; perhaps the projected text that sets each scene in a tavern or forest could include temporal additions when relevant?

Sound problems aren’t limited to the miked band being disconcertingly amplified from behind the audience. Apart from bodies there’s nothing but hard surfaces, so reverberation make the lyrics and (sometimes dense) dialogue difficult to understand on occasion. Elizabethan English can be challenging at the best of times.

For the most part, however, William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs is clever, amusing theatre. Of course it will particularly appeal to those who are fans of both Shakespeare and Tarantino’s cult classic, but even passing familiarity should suffice to enjoy this unlikely mix of archaic and retro popular culture.

William Shakespeare’s Reservoir Dogs plays at Theatre Works, Melbourne, until 15 August.