An entertaining mix of bluegrass music and junkyard theatre style storytelling is what you get with the Suitcase Royale’s show ‘The Ballad Of Backbone Joe’. This Melbourne ‘Rag N Bone’ band, comprising Miles O’Neil, Glen Walton and Joseph O’Farrell, has been attracting good audiences in Melbourne since 2004. Their current show, fresh from a season at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, has been brought to Sydney by the Sydney Theatre Company.

Audiences walk in to the theatre to the jamming of the band made up of contra bass, banjo, guitar, accordion, harmonica and drums, with a jocular opening bracket of songs. Then they lay down their instruments and get on to what they do equally well, coming up with and performing a damn good yarn, complete with quirky improvisations against collages flitting by like silent movies.

The narrative is play noir set in the roaring carnival days of pre-war Australia in a small town’s abattoir and boxing emporium. The story revolves around trying to get to the bottom of the murder of a beautiful woman- Backbone Joe’s wife- in a blood red dress. There are three main players; Backbone Joe, a local boxer who is suspected of committing her murder, Backbone’s sleazy agent and manager, and the obligatory private detective! The trio tell their story in a very post-modern way, combining a loose, friendly mix of cinematic elements, slapstick, visual cues, songs, and quirky humour.

When the story ends, the guys do a closing number, and then, to enthusiastic applause, race up the stairs to the foyer where they invite anyone in the audience to join them for a chat, and just maybe buy their latest cd.

The Suitcase Royale’s ‘The Ballad Of Backbone Joe’ plays Wharf 2 at the Sydney Theatre Company until Saturday October 2, 2010.