Barbara and the Camp Dogs

Sydney’s Surry Hills is full of pubs where you’d see a band rocking the house. And so it’s not out of place to see such a scene at the Belvoir, where Barbara and The Camp Dogs first played in 2017 and are back for a return season. This time, it’s a tour too, with gigs in Brisbane, Melbourne and other cities. This award-winning band (and the musical they’ve created) needs to be seen by more people.

Barbara and the Camp Dogs are not your average pub band: all female, with two indigenous singers Barbara (Ursula Yovich) and her sister René (Elaine Crombie), plus three “camp dogs” on bass, guitar and drums (Sorcha Albuquerque, Michelle Vincent and Jessica Dunn). Through their music and shocking tales, Barbara and René involve us in their tumultuous lives. Their stories are shocking, evoking disgust, regret and pity - not so much for them but for ourselves, as we are forced to look in the mirror.

Barbara is often angry, at her sister, an audience member, bar person, police officer, sexual partner, her parents for deserting her, or her aunt Jill, who has been her true mother and is now dying. She keeps singing her furious songs as she heads home to Katherine with her sister to see their mother and confront her past.

Barbara also confronts the audience. She is foul-mouthed, proudly sexual and seemingly afraid of no-one. And she has killer lines. “You hate us ’cause we’re black or pity us ’cause we’re black,” she says. “Which is worse?”

Yovich, who calls Barbara her alter-ego, is bloody brilliant. She has written the songs (with Valentine and Adm Ventoura) and sings them with full force. She’s got a great voice, which is just one reason why we love her so much even though she’s so, well, rude, with her deeply uncomfortable truths. “At the heart of this country is a theft,” she reminds us. “And now the whole place crouches, waiting, calculating about when it is going to be stolen back from them. Because nobody fears being thieved from as much as a pack of thieves." Ouch.

Director Leticia Cáceres has done a great job absorbing the audience in this piece, with her small, wonderful cast of musicians. Alongside Yovich, Crombie is also stunningly good. René is a much more sympathetic character but just as forceful.

This could have been a straight play and it would have had plenty of impact. The book is very powerful. But the songs, while not as strong as the book, ramp up the power too, particularly at the end. “Let in the Love” is a highlight - lyrical and beautiful - as well as “Chained to You”.

Barbara and the Camp Dogs is the kind of theatre we need. It makes us uncomfortable, not just over the shameful past but our ongoing attitudes today. At the end, we give a standing ovation, and that’s uncomfortable too. There is so much more we need to do.

Peter Gotting

Buy the script here.

Photographer: Brett Boardman