Rock-N-Roll Spirit Meets Indigenous Experience In Ursula Yovich's Barbara And The Camp Dogs

There was a while, back there, when renowned singer and Helpmann award-winning actor Ursula Yovich felt she was getting typecast in the role of young, feisty Indigenous girl. "It's not to say that these roles aren't important, they really are. But I felt like I never got to step out of that," she says. "But since I voiced my frustrations, it all started to open up for me. I really wanted to show off what I could do."

Currently, Yovich is wrapping up her turn as the ambitious Barbara, dreaming big in Katherine Thomson's celebrated play Diving for Pearls, at the Griffin Theatre. It's exactly the kind of meaty role she's hankered after. She also showcased her impressive vocal skills earlier this year, performing with the Barefoot Divas in Sydney Festival show Walk A Mile in My Shoes, a collaboration with music producer Vicki Gordon and playwright Alana Valentine.

It was during that run that she first mentioned another Barbara, her admittedly "feisty" alter ego. "It was always a joke between myself and a friend, saying that what I should do is have an all-Aboriginal girl rock band," Yovich laughs. "That frustration I was feeling just kind of grew and I don't know how it came out, but I mentioned this character Barbara to Alana and Vicki and they loved it."

That was the birth of the upcoming Belvoir show Barbara & The Camp Dogs. Directed by Leticia Caceres and featuring a three-piece band with music direction by Jessica Dunn, Yovich stars as the lead singer, alongside Elaine Crombie as Barbara's more willing to tow the music industry line cousin Rene. Getting fed up with trying to crack the Sydney scene, tragic family news draws them back to country.

Yovich co-wrote the work with Valentine and peppered with songs penned by them both and Adam Ventoura. "Alana brings out the best in me," Yovich shares. "When we're in a room writing together, we really push the boundaries. I'm the prude actually. I always thought I was a bit cheeky, but I'd say something and then I'd go, 'Aw nah, nah, let's pull that back, it's a bit too much,' and she's like, 'No, put it in there. Let's just do it'."

Listing Blondie, Joan Jett and Pat Benatar as musical inspirations, Yovich says the show - which tackles the vagaries of the music industry and racial politics as well as family drama ­- also features punk influences and beautiful ballads. "I'm floored by Ursula's capacity as an actor I've always admired, but also the music just blew me out of the water," Caceres says. "This was the experience I was having when I first saw Once, where you just want to buy the album straight away and you fall in love with those characters."

Caceres sees a tragic complexity in the role of Barbara. "She's that kind of classic tortured artist figure that we love, like Amy Winehouse or Courtney Love. Ursula is able to tap into the reasons why Barbara is not stepping up. Part of it is the context of the music industry in relation to race and then the other part is actually the personal, the demons of the artist. All the great singer-songwriters have that, right?"

As we speak, Caceres is adamant that now the script is locked, she'll insist Yovich focus solely on acting in the rehearsal room, just as she did with Leah Purcell in the much-garlanded The Drover's Wife, another Belvoir production and one of the most celebrated new plays of recent years. 

"What makes the writing so thrilling is that it really sounds great in the actor's mouth," Caceres adds. "It doesn't feel writer-y, so that's been wonderful. Collaborating with an excellent writer like Alana, it's just meant that the work is solid. It's secure, so Ursula's going to be able to relax into just the one role."

Yovich says that audience will at first see an angry woman in Barbara, but that she hopes the show makes them question why. "Barbara is unadulterated. She doesn't have a filter, only when it comes to her own emotional baggage. One of the reasons why I love the arts is because I really do think it's about practising empathy. Going and watching something is about putting yourself in the shoes of those characters. That's how you learn."

Belvoir Theatre presents Barbara & The Camp Dogs from 2 Dec.