The Belvoir St Theatre has showcased a great deal of exciting new material in recent times, and continuing in that vein is their showcase of Big Girls Don’t Cry. Written by Gumbaynggirr/Wiradjuri playwright Dalara Williams (who also stars in the show), the play centres around three First Nations women in Redfern, 1966, who confront the daily realities of job precarity, police harassment, love and friendship as the gear up for the Debutante Ball. What follows is a story that primarily focuses on three quests for love, in different ways and the bonds that bring the group of women together. 

The context of the play is ever present in the narrative, with the 1967 referendum looming large. Cheryl (Williams), Queenie (Megan Wilding) and Lulu (Stephanie Somerville) are three friends with vastly different personalities. Queenie is the boldest of the friend group, while Cheryl and Lulu are also trying to find their way in a world that often alienates them. 

The acting in the show is fantastic, with Wilding especially showcasing the breadth of her acting range, with a considered and often hilarious performance. The rest of the protagonists are also very strong and do a good job of keeping energy through a very long production. 

There are also some intense moments in the production that are explored quite well. The confrontation between the protagonists and the police at the end of the first act is highly dramatic and effective in conveying the insidiousness of the prejudice that the characters in the play feel. However, the play does not hold the momentum through the second act as well as it could, with the focus on the love story in the second act distracting from the very heavy themes explored in the first, making the two plotlines seem almost disparate despite their inherent interconnectedness. 

The structuring issues are compounded by the fact that the play is extremely long, with the audience losing focus as the plots become somewhat repetitive. The writing often has the feel of a monologue to it, which means that the flow is lost and some of the complexities of the very challenging themes explored are missing. A lot of background knowledge is assumed and many of the gaps are not filled in, with the potential of the play to meaningfully interrogate the structures that it seeks to examine with subtlety and depth somewhat missed. 

Additionally, with the play attempting to balance its exploration of the historical context with the present day, some of the references feel a little out of place. References to allyship do not quite work, given that this was a term that was really first coined in the 90s and much of the writing grapples with this same dilemma, feeling as though it has been implanted into the time period of the play from a modern lens. It’s nearly there, but just does not quite work in the way that is intended. 

Ultimately, while this is a play full of promise, interesting subject matter and quality acting, it perhaps needs a little tightening structurally to fully realise its potential. It obscures some of the very important issues it deals with at times and is too long, with the two plot lines detracting from each other to some degree. With some work, this could be a truly fantastic production, with the building blocks of something special. I hope to see this production back one day as it continues to evolve. 

Rating: ★★★1/2

Big Girls Don’t Cry plays at the Belvoir St Theatre until 27^th April. For more information, click here.  

Photo credit: Stephen Wilson Barker