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THE SAPPHIRES ★★★½
Bille Brown Theatre, until May 24
The soul sisters are back in the return of one of Australian theatre’s genuine success stories. And with an impressive new design and a new-generation cast sporting serious vocal chops, The Sapphires sparkles as brightly as ever.
Playwright-actor Tony Briggs had two inspirations in writing the play, which the Melbourne Theatre Company premiered in 2004. Firstly, having just acted in a worthy but depressing show about Indigenous experience, he aimed to write something fun, positive and entertaining.
Secondly, he wanted to celebrate the stories of his mother, Laurel Robinson, who toured Vietnam in 1969 as part of an Aboriginal girl group performing for US troops.
In Briggs’ fictionalised version, the four McCrae sisters are Yorta Yorta women who enter a Melbourne talent show with their Supremes-style vocal act and are discovered by a boofhead would-be svengali, Dave Lovelace (Jack Bannister).
There is the group’s self-appointed leader, Gail (Taeg Twist); wild child Cynthia (Ruby Henaway); thoughtful Kay (Aurora Liddle-Christie); and the baby of the group, Julie (Tehya Makani).
In fairytale fashion, the girls are whisked off to Vietnam, where concerts and romantic entanglements await, as well as a few hard truths. They also befriend a Vietnamese teenager, Joe (Chris Nguyen).
Queensland Theatre’s revival production brings back the show’s original director, Brisbane-raised Wesley Enoch, and the original designer, Richard Roberts.
Roberts dresses the stars in a dazzling wardrobe of mini-skirts, knee-high boots and the like, and worked with video designer Craig Wilkinson to add slick black-and-white period footage to several scenes.
The four principals, all of them making their Queensland Theatre debuts, prove comically adept as their sisterly quirks and rivalries play out. All of them are superb singers, but Twist, whose character suffers no fools gladly and sings Chain of Fools with an earth-shattering growl, emerges as the standout.
The Sapphires is on firm ground when its stars are letting rip with renditions of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough or My Boyfriend’s Back, slinkily choreographed by Yolande Brown and powered by a deadly four-piece on-stage band.
But while the passing decades may have added technical polish to the show, there’s no disguising how dramatically lightweight Briggs’ script remains.
If you’ve only seen Wayne Blair’s film adaptation starring Jessica Mauboy and Deborah Mailman, on which Briggs and others worked hard to impose a thoughtful narrative, you may be surprised by the looseness of the story here.
The idea that Aboriginal women who would not have a taxi door held open for them in their own country are treated better in a war zone is mentioned, but not explored very deeply. Never mind the moral complexities of Australia’s participation in the conflict the Vietnamese call the American War.
The production is poignant given the recent passing of one of the real-life Sapphires, Briggs’ aunty, Dr Naomi Mayers OAM. You’re left wondering what actually happened, and wishing you could ask her.
As it is, The Sapphires is best enjoyed on the level of a musical revue, and it’s the songs that speak most eloquently: namely People Make The World A Better Place, and most of all, the Otis Redding/Aretha Franklin classic that bookends the show, Respect.
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Nick Dent is a Culture Reporter at Brisbane Times, covering arts and things to do in the city.Connect via email.From our partners
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