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Ursula Yovich Sings Nina Simone and A Night of Rock and Roll with Bogan Villea
- Ron Lee, CSP, MAICD
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Ursula Yovich Sings Nina Simone
Wharf Theatre
Photo credit Neil Bennett
Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP
It was an indigenous double bill from the Northern Territory as part of the Sydney Festival at the Wharf Theatre.
The first show was Ursula Yovich Sings Nina Simone. What a voice she has in her. The performer from Darwin sang Nina Simone songs from the perspective of an Aboriginal woman. She definitely made those songs her own. In fact, she could sing anything and put her stamp on it.
Those powerful vocals surprised those of us who hadn't seen her before.
Between the songs, Yovich gave her view of the world from her heart.
I wondered about her name and found out that her father, Slobodan Jović, was a Bosnian Serb immigrant who anglicised his name to Yovich. Her mother is an Aboriginal Burarra woman from north-west Arnhem Land, so she has a rich cross -culture.
Ursula Yovic’s voice, with just the right amount of vibrato was a delight, but she had a surprise in store.
A Night of Rock and Roll with Bogan Villea
Wharf Theatre
Photo credit Stephen Wilson Barker
Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP
The second show was A Night of Rock and Roll With Bogan Villea. If Housos and Priscilla Queen of the Desert had an illegitimate child, it would be drag queen Bogan Villea, the creation of Northern Territorian Ben Graetz, She’s a Dollar Shop Carlotta who MCs a show that features drag performers such as Tyra Bankstown who mimes as does Bogan and one of the other drag acts. One performer who did sing was Scott Hunter who was excellent technically and emotionally.
Ursula Yovich showed her versatility, making a return appearance, brilliantly singing Chrissy Amphlett. Her rendition of Pleasure and Pain was captivating.
Graetz gave us some insights into what it was like to be a gay Aboriginal boy growing up in Darwin. It was an interesting night that finished with the cast lip-syncing the Kiss hit, I Was Made For Loving You.
From a production perspective, the lighting designer might want to look at some of the levels. The 24 upstage lights were at times up way too high. When a performer is back-lit, the audience only sees a silhouette but sometimes the lights were so bright that we couldn’t even see an outline.
Drag acts have significantly lifted their games since the days of Les Girls by actually singing, and singing well. Trevor Ashley is the most outstanding and successful example.
I wasn’t aware that there was an indigenous drag community, but Ben Graetz is ensuring that Australians are noticing and that it deserves to be embraced because of the combination of uniqueness and authenticity.
