This rocking semi-autobiographical play with songs was a big hit for Sydney’s Belvoir in 2017 (read Time Out Sydney’s four-star review). Ursula Yovich co-wrote the play with Alana Valentine and stars as Barbara, an angry pub singer who takes no prisoners. Her life is turned upside down when she and her sister (played by Elaine Crombie) are called back to Katherine to say goodbye to their dying mother.
Time Out Sydney wrote: “Barbara and the Camp Dogs is a road trip buddy comedy that pulls itself apart to reveal our intergenerational, national distress – how the horrors of invasion, genocide and brutality by those in power caused fault lines that even today damage the livelihoods of First Nations Australians.”
All the songs are killer and performed with a live rock band on stage. And Malthouse has been transformed into a big, sticky pub to accommodate Barbara.