Barbara’s big belonging

Barbara and the Camp Dogs (A Belvoir Production in association with Vicki Gordon Music Productions)

Queensland Theatre, Bille Brown Theatre

May 1 – 25

A pre-show soundtrack of Oz-rock classics adds an air of excitement to the experience of audience members awaiting the Brisbane season of Belvoir Theatre’s “Barbara and the Camp Dogs” by Ursula Yovich and Alana Valentine. It’s an effective emphasis of the pub rock atmosphere for anyone who hasn’t gathered the feel of Set Designer Stephen Curtis’ bold aesthetic vision, detailed even down to the corner-stage’s backdrop blackboard advertising happy-hour specials and the gawdily-patterned pub carpet beneath barstools and well-worn couches.  With the audience banked around three sides of the pub stage and surrounds (where some audience members are also seated), a band takes the stage and the scene is set for 100 minutes of raw rock and powerful dramatic performances.

Barbara (Shakira Clanton rather than Ursula Yovich for this mid-week performance) and Rene (Elaine Crombie) are two Indigenous siblings and Sydney performers with their back-up band, the Camp Dogs. When a family crisis calls them back to Darwin and then on to their home town, the complexity of their relationship and, in particular, Barbara’s ferocity, unfolds. And from the time the duo take to the road to trip down to Katherine, when things pick up pace-wise, it is thanks to the pair’s humorous interactions, full of the sarcasm, mockery and the outright insults that are so common in sibling back-and-forth banter.

True siblings or not, these two woman sure can sing and songs feature predominantly throughout the production. There are many musical numbers, particularly in early scenes, making it difficult to recall individual highlights, without a song list in the program to assist. The soundtrack starts with loud and energetic rock numbers that vibrate with energy, however, the highlights come when songs slow to more emotional numbers in reveal of Barbara’s drives and disappointments and resulting conflict of belonging. Rather than dominating, music in the show’s second half is used to subtly signal a change in its tone, of the kind not realised until after its occurrence. And its final number, ‘Let in the Love’ with Troy Jungaji Brady serves as an acute reminder of the thematic message at its core.

Elaine Crombie is genuinely entertaining as ever as the personality-plus Rene, however, as is suggested by the title, this really is Barbara’s story. As understudy stepping into Ursula Yovich’s shoes, Clanton gives a sensational performance in the eponymous role, evidenced not only in her angsty attitude but in her harrowing show of grief’s real rawness and confronting monologue about the theft of country, community and culture. It’s a powerful political message moment, of the Get Krack!n finale essential viewing sort.

“Barbara and the Camp Dogs” is a show of big themes explored in intimate ways. Its balance of humour and drama is entertaining, thought-provoking and ultimately moving in that sneak-up-on-you kind of way. Add in its easy-to-follow narrative, absorbing performances and sensational vocal displays and it is easy to appreciate its previous seasons’ successes.

Photos of Ursula Yovich as Barbara

Considerations of quality

A couple of months away travelling and a couple more laid up with pneumonia and I saw fewer shows in 2017 than in recent years (but still well into the double digits). Reflecting, it is clear that quality over quantity can be incredibly rewarding. And what quality there was on offer… so much so that my usual top five favourite, has been blown out to the following ten:

1. Torch Songs (Mama Alto, Brisbane Powerhouse, Wonderland Festival)
2. Lady Beatle (The Little Red Company, La Boite Theatre Company)
3. My Name is Jimi (Queensland Theatre)
4. Once in Royal David’s City (Queensland Theatre)
5. The Play that Goes Wrong (Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, QPAC)
6. Chef (Persona Inc & Atobiz Ltd, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane Festival)
7. Nigel Kennedy: Vivaldi The New Four Seasons + Dedications (Nigel Kennedy, QPAC)
8. Kinky Boots (Michael Cassel in association with Cameron Mackintosh, QPAC)
9. Spectate (Counterpilot, Metro Arts)
10. Humans (Circa, QPAC)

And honourable mention to the UK’s National Theatre Stage to Screen show Yerma… Gut-wrenching, phenomenal theatre thanks to Billie Piper’s devastatingly powerful performance.

And mention also to the following highlights:

• Best performance:
  • Elaine Crombie as a hilarious house-slave in Queensland Theatre Company’s An Octoroon.
  • Merlynn Tong in her intimate and vulnerable one-woman work, Playlab’s Blue Bones
  • Cameron Hurry as badly behaved brother Valene in the darkly irreverent The Lonesome West by Troop Productions
• Best AV – Spectate (Counterpilot, Metro Arts)
• Most thought provoking –- Octoroon (Queensland Theatre, Brisbane Festival)
• Best new work – Merlyn Tong’s Blue Bones (Playlab, Brisbane Powerhouse)
• Best Reimagining – Signifying Nothing (Macbeth) (Hammond Fleet Productions, Brisbane Festival)
• Best musical – Kinky Boots (Michael Cassel in association with Cameron Mackintosh, QPAC)
• Best cabaret:
  • Torch Songs (Mama Alto, Brisbane Powerhouse, Wonderland Festival)
  • Lady Beatle (The Little Red Company, La Boite Theatre Company)
  • Song Lines (Michael Tuahine, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane Cabaret Festival)
  • Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs (Alan Cumming, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane Cabaret Festival)
• Best music – Nigel Kennedy: Vivaldi The New Four Seasons + Dedications (QPAC)
• Best opera – Mark Vincent Sings Mario Lanza and the Classics (Lunchbox Productions, QPAC)
• Funniest – The Play That Goes Wrong (Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, QPAC)
• Most fun – Let Them Eat Cake (Act/React, Anywhere Festival)
• Most madcap – Chef (Persona Inc & Atobiz Ltd, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane Festival)
• Most immersive – Trainspotting Live (In Your Face Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse)
• Most moving – Once in Royal David’s City (Queensland Theatre)

2018 looks set to continue to showcase both the wonderful work of this state’s creatives and innovative works from both here and further afield. Festivals will continue to punctuate the cultural calendar, serving to oscillate audiences between feast and famine like a cultural bulimic… although with Brisbane Powerhouse’s Melt Festival moving to May (maybe at the same time as Anywhere Festival) it may be a shower than usual start to the year.

Octoroon originality

An Octoroon (Queensland Theatre and Brisbane Festival)

The Greenhouse, Bille Brown Studio

September 15 – October 8

An octoroon is a person who has one-eighth black heritage. This now-politically-incorrect titular understanding is at the centre of Queensland Theatre’s “An Octoroon” we are told in a meta-theatre pre-emptive explanation of the Act Four function in melodrama. The clarification is not necessary, but appreciated given all that is going in American writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ confronting, challenging and compelling re-imagining of a 19^th century slavery melodrama by Irish writer Dion Boucicault.

The Peyton family’s Louisiana plantation seems destined to fall into the unscrupulous hands of its former overseer, M’Closky (Colin Smith). George Peyton (also Colin Smith) is a decent man who scandalously falls for Zoe (Shari Sebbens), the well-educated, illegitimate and octoroon daughter of the deceased owner. And so, he must choose between his love for Zoe and his need to save the estate by marrying the entitled rich heiress Dora (Sarah Ogden).

It begins, however, with the meta-theatrical framing device of playwright character, BJJ (Colin Smith) sharing his frustrations with being a ‘black playwright’ before a confrontation with the original text’s playwright (Anthony Standish). With his white actors having quit the play, BJJ proceeds to don white face paint and perform their roles himself, which happens to lead to one of many hilarious scenes as he switches between the heroic George and the antagonist M’Closky in a physical altercation.

In the hands of leading aboriginal artist Nakkiah Lui, in her directorial debut, this Australian exclusive production, has been subtly re-contextualised through our own lens. Its rich and resplendent tapestry of themes is realised in a lively work of much colour and movement. So much is going on in stylised chaos as music pumps, characters interact playfully and black actors wear whiteface and white actors wear blackface.

Much of the laugher generated is of the uneasy sort and staging, with a long white traverse space with the audience seated on both sides, affords opportunity to see how others are also reacting both in its riotous moments and when serious consideration sharply contrasts earlier scenes. When the audience watches in absolute silence during these later-show moments, it is not with indifference but with acute understanding and acknowledgement of the impact of its message.

Certainly, the indigenous re-contextualisation of the African American story to themes from Australia’s colonial history, works, without detracting from the spirit of the original. Risky themes and complicated questions are translated with effective use of visual language to create a completely original and engaging theatrical experience that is through-provoking and challenging in its layered exploration of who we are and who we are becoming.

Although it is Smith, Standish and Antony Taufa who perform multiple roles in the show, it the ladies of the cast who leave the most lasting impression. Sebbens makes for a humorous heroine, Zoe and Ogden appears to be having great fun within her role as the heiress Dora; she is every bit a stereotypical Southern Belle desperate for George’s attention, complete with an over-the-top accent.

Chenoa Deemal makes the most of her role as field-slave Grace, shunned by those of higher, house, station, while closely bonded house-slaves Minnie (Elaine Crombie) and Dido (Melodie Reynolds-Diarra) provide the most laughs in their sassy banter about slave life, the chemistry between the pair filling the theatre in their every easy interaction. Indeed, as the brash, tell-it-as-it-is Minnie, Crombie is absolutely superb in her comic timing and the very best thing about the show.

“An Octoroon” is an original and gripping provocation that gives audiences much to take away from its energetic, fearless approach to interrogating race and identity and the extent to which stereotypes are still embedded in today’s consciousness. It is not only a deconstruction of racial representation, but a gripping production (despite its two hour duration), to be enjoyed and appreciated in equal measure. … bold, inventive and probably unlike anything you will have ever seen on stage before.