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| Ursula Yovich, writer and star of Barbara and the Camp Dogs Photo: Brett Boardman |
“I am angry. That’s what rock is supposed to be. Full of pain.”
Barbara and her sister René front a band called The Camp Dogs when Barb can book gigs,
which is sometimes just busking. Meanwhile, René loves an audience so much, she
does a Singing Sheilas cover show at the casino. They’d love to have steady
work together, but they know what the music industry is like. That’s where the
anger comes in.
The Malthouse audience (“they’ll touch anything”) enters the
Merlyn theatre to find it’s been turned into a low-rent music venue, complete
with sticky carpet, a chalk board to announce the band and the happy hour
specials, and some terrible furniture to seat some lucky audience members. We’re
here for the gig and the stories in between the songs, but there’s more to Barbara and the Camp Dogs than listening
to rock’n’roll in a space that feels like a hipster pub.
When René talks about anger early on, it’s a laugh line. She’s
rolling her eyes at her head-strong sister yelling at the venue managers that
pay them and people in the industry that might be able to help them. René doesn’t
want to rock the boat – at least not until they get a gig on a yacht, which
Barb might have only booked because the owners thought they were Indian.
Barbara knows, though, that as good as she and her sister
are, the music industry isn’t looking for new Aboriginal talent to play bigger
venues. “They pretend it’s all about merit when it’s really all about what they
think they can sell to suburban Sally and her dick-shaped hairbrush.”
The show we’re watching isn’t just the drama and comedy of these
two sisters’ lives though; some of it is a pure rock show, with driving songs
of love, passion and outrage. Songs borne of everything these two have been
through – sharpened by Barbara’s anger.
Writers Ursula Yovich (who also plays Barbara) and Alana
Valentine have joined with musician Adm Ventoura to craft the songs which rock
out in the venue – sometimes to rhythmic clapping and stomping of feet and
sometimes to quiet reflection. The concert part of the show is worth the price
of admission alone, but the behind-the-scenes moments elevate this to something
truly special.
Elaine Crombie (René) and Ursula Yovich (Barbara) are
charming, hilarious and devastating in their portrayal of two sisters, whose
family life has been rough and who can’t quite make a living at what they love.
Their powerful singing gives way to equally striking dramatic performances as
they travel to Darwin for a gig (which the poor Camp Dogs have to pay to get to) and then hit the road to visit
their dying mother.
Anger is the driving force behind Barbara and the Camp Dogs. Barbara knows that being the best
singer/songwriter in a country that has systematically oppressed its Aboriginal
population means that she’ll always struggle. She and her sister sing of
standing in the sun and not giving an inch, but as their journey progresses, we
can see that their country continues to stand in their way.
It’s often said that comedy is used as a trojan horse to get
audiences to hear uncomfortable truths. There are plenty of laughs in Barbara and the Camp Dogs but the real
trojan horse here is the rock music. The audience is whooping and cheering the singing
and the on-stage band, but slowly, surely and expertly – under the superb direction
of Leticia Cáceres – we are let in on a story of pain and anger. Another
wake-up call for an audience and a population and a country that should have
heard this and done something about it a long ago.
Anger. It’s what rock is supposed to be. It’s what makes
this show come alive. An outstanding achievement.
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| The set of Barbara and the Camp Dogs Photo: Brett Boardman |
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