Is Gumbaynggirr/Wiradjuri woman Dalara Williams the Deborah Mailman of her generation? The writer and lead actor in Belvoir St Theatre’s play Big Girls Don’t Cry is luminous. She exudes a natural gravitas and emotional intelligence, and becomes the storyteller around whom her cast circles.
The audience of Big Girls Don’t Cry is presented with a troubling social history and commentary set in 1960s Redfern and told from the perspectives of Williams as a female Aboriginal playwright and Noongar director Ian Michael. The play covers issues related to the strict missions controlled by the Aboriginal Protection Board, the 1965 Freedom Ride, groundless, brutal police harassment, Aboriginal protests leading to the 1967 referendum and hope for a brighter future. In tandem with these issues, the play celebrates young women who want to have fun, sing, dance and find romance. They crave recognition, to be ‘seen’ and treated fairly.
Williams plays Cheryl who, while pining for Michael, her Aboriginal serviceman boyfriend, wants to stay in Sydney and enjoy the freedom of city life. Her friend and new housemate Lulu (Martu woman Stephanie Somerville) is a ‘good girl’. She works for white families who live on the other side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and endures racism on her commute. Dressed in pretty clothes and perhaps underestimated, Lulu finds her voice as the play progresses.
The third friend in the group is Queenie (Gamilaroi person Megan Wilding). She is a dynamo who wears bright, bold colours and sparkling outfits. She appears overconfident and shares that she is often told that she is “not enough … or too much. Too loud, too headstrong … too Black”. Queenie has all the funniest lines, which she delivers with comedic shrewdness, but is most potent when revealing her vulnerability and fragility.
The male cast is steered by Cheryl’s activist brother Ernest/Ernie (Birripi, Worimi, Waddi Waddi and Walbunga man Guy Simon), whose name is a play on his character, and his Italian university friend Emilio/Milo, a dashing Nic English. Milo is smitten with Cheryl, who is torn between him and her absent beau. Michael (Wongatha man Mathew Cooper) shares several scenes with Cheryl. Rounding out the cast is Bryn Chapman Parish who plays threatening Officer Robinson, as well as another unexpected contrasting role.
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The first Act leisurely establishes the relationships and issues. The second Act begins with Cheryl’s own impassioned ‘Redfern speech’. The play then escalates in pacing and laughs as the themes (and romances) develop and coalesce.
There are multiple scenes (probably too many, particularly in the first Act) and multiple set changes.
Some of the latter are signalled by composer and sound designer Brendon Boney’s quiet recorded music of the era that increases in volume to become ‘diegetic’ music.
The revolving stage is brightly lit against a black background and the centre aisle and stairs in the auditorium are used for dramatic entrances. The director has done a solid job, but too often positions characters facing the front, which makes it difficult for the audience members seated on the sides to hear a couple of actors who don’t project their voices and articulate clearly.
The Aboriginal Debutante Ball is a longed-for, refreshing climax. The excitement builds and almost all the romantic relationships make headway.
Located in the Redfern area, Belvoir St Theatre is a fitting place for Big Girls Don’t Cry’s debut. Ernest observes, “This is Redfern. Anything can happen for us now.” This is a time of opportunity. Aboriginal women and girls are grabbing their futures with both hands and making others sit up and pay attention. They prophetically and presciently declare: “Aboriginal girls can do whatever we want.”
Big Girls Don’t Cry, by Dalara Williams
Belvoir St Theatre
Director: Ian Michael
Set Designer: Stephen Curtis
Lighting Designer: Kelsey Lee
Composer and Sound Designer: Brendon Boney
Costume Designer: Emma White
Intimacy Coordinator: Chloë Dallimore
Fight Director: Nigel Poulton
Choreographer: Elle Evangelista
Voice Coach: Laura Farrell
First Nations Community Liaison: Angeline Penrith
Assistant Director: Abbie-lee Lewis
Stage Manager: Isabella Kerdijk
Assistant Stage Manager: Maddison Craven
Cast: Stephanie Somerville, Megan Wilding, Dalara Williams, Bryn Chapman Parish, Mathew Cooper, Nic English, Guy Simon
Indigenous Theatre at Belvoir is supported by the Balnaves Foundation.
Tickets: $41-$97
Big Girls Don’t Cry will be performed until 27 April 2025.
