Tiddas is the story of five friends who gather to form a book group - mostly indigenous and mostly born in Mudgee but now living in Brisbane, they have professional and personal challenges that come out during the course of the various meetings as they read, reflect, and contemplate It's a warm piece, but it doesn't shy away from raising some of the challenges and tensions that can come with long-term friendships, as long-untold thoughts simmer in the background until they come out at inopportune moments. The six women, all in their early 40s, confront issues of career, family, and their obligations as indigenous women to serve their culture.
Anita Heiss has based the script on her own novel, and there's a slight sense that the 90 minutes duration play is rushing through the incidents a little - some of the issues presented feel only lightly explored. In particular, there's a strong confrontation partway through where it feels like non-indigenous audience allies are being confronted with how performative a lot of allyship can be ... but this is allowed to dribble away with the issues hidden behind a personal failing rather than a wider social problem. The play premiered at Brisbane's LaBoite in 2022, based on a novel from 2014, and in this revival, there's obviously been an update to reference the Ocboer 2023 referendum ... but it remains just a reference rather than something really used to pursue a deeper and more urgent dramatic question about how aboriginal engagement with the white populace is even possible. Still, the play isn't really written to deal with something of that size ... but for the seconds it's referenced, it feels like a much bigger play than it ultimately is.
There's reasonably strong performances across the cast - Louise Brehmer's blowsy, brash Nadine; Lara Croydon's opinionated, confident Izzy; Jade Lomas-Roman's warm, emotional Xanthe; Anna McMahon's growing confidence as Veronica; and Perry Mooney's confident Ellen. Co-director Roxanne McDonald does double duty as the somewhat underwritten Nan (who's basically there more as a visual presence for a lot of the show) and the brief cameo as Mum, and Sean Dow plays 5 different roles as a range of different men in the women's lives, easily differentiated through performance and bearing.
Zoe Rouse's set design is beautiful though it doesn't always allow for the smoothest of scene transitions, and technically this is finely done.
My main issue is that this really isn't stretching too far beyond the "nice night out" stereotype - it's distinctly unambitious theatre, which is not really what I come to Belvoir for. Belvoir's commitment to indigenous drama has been a proud feature of their work, but I think that drama needs to be unafraid to engage in the harder questions that come up rather than just offer comfort viewing.
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