Barbara and the Camp Dogs. Photo: Brett Board
Part family drama, part road trip and part cri de coeur, Barbara and the Camp Dogs is both a raucously funny tale and a soberingly sad one. It’s also a really good musical night out, with Belvoir’s upstairs theatre converted into a very convincing cabaret/night club, complete with a few sofas for some audience members, and a truly fabulous three-piece band.
Barbara and her sister Rene are singers – and they are great – but getting a break in Sydney isn’t easy, especially with Barbara’s attitude. To quote co-writer Ursula Yovich, Barbara is “pissed off, ramped up, foul-mouthed, shamelessly sexual, flirtatious and dangerous”. And a lot of fun, when she is in a good mood. Rene tries to keep her on track, without pulling any punches of her own.
Right from the start we’re into the music, all original compositions (courtesy of Alana Valentine, Ursula Yovich and Adm Ventoura), ranging from solid rock songs to ballads. The music alone is worth the price of your ticket but it is only half the story.
Shakira Clanton plays Barbara
Barbara (in the performance I attended played by Shakira Clanton) and Rene (Elaine Crombie) are about to confront their own demons – and tell us a few home truths as well.
Up in the Northern Territory, their mother is dying and the women fly to Darwin, then start a road trip to Katherine on a bike Barbara has “borrowed”. The scenes of the bike, like many of the scenes up to now, are just laugh out loud. The role of Barbara is usually played by Yovich but Clanton is brilliant as the angry and OTT Barbara and Crombie equally forceful and charismatic as her reluctant foil. They are a great pairing.
Barbara is in denial though; about Mum Jill dying, about her past, about being abandoned by her own mother, then her father. Mum Jill’s death would be yet another abandonment. Barbara is desperate to belong, somewhere. She goes AWOL, gets drunk, gets put in the lock-up. Rene, grieving for her mother’s imminent death, is by now completely over Barbara. Not surprisingly, they have a furious fight. This is a 90-minute show but we learn a lot about these two women and indigenous issues, about culture and belonging, and the Stolen Generation, and how all these things have shaped Rene and Barbara, their families – and us. Just as we laugh at Barbara’s antics, we feel sorrow at the world that brought her to behave as she does. There are some deeply poignant moments in this show, which is directed by Letiticia Caceres.
The band kicks up a storm. Jessica Dunn (musical director and bass), Sorcha Albuquerque (lead guitar), Michelle Vincent (drums) and Troy Jungali Brady, who as well as playing guitar takes on the role of Barbara’s brother Joseph.
This is a return season for Barbara and the Camp Dogs, by Alana Valentine and Ursula Yovich, and it’s at Belvoir Street until April 28 as part of an East Coast tour.
Highly recommended.
