Show Us Your Tiddas! by Lou Bennett
Melbourne Workers Theatre
Black Box, Victorian Arts Centre
May 17 to June 2, 2007 Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 17, 2007
Show Us Your Tiddas! is Lou Bennett’s stroll down her own memory lane through song and narration.
It is an autobiographical cabaret that begins with her early childhood in her Indigenous community in Echuca.
Bennett nursed dreams of joining her Uncles’ band, The Shades. She struggled to learn guitar, without the help of the Uncles, beginning with one single chord but determined to succeed. She finally makes it to the stage to play with their band then moves on, at seventeen, to very nervously start her singer career.
Although the show, directed by Rachael Maza, is to some degree hampered by Bennett’s limited theatrical ability, it is carried by her warmth and commitment to her own stories. The show begins rather clumsily but picks up pace, confidence and interest as Bennett’s story unfolds.
Backed by her drummer, Phil Collings and bassist, Alice Gate-Eastley, Bennett peppers her self-narration with original songs from her ten years with The Tiddas, her extremely popular, Aria Award winning Indigenous trio, in addition to some new songs of her own and a few old standards.
There are several moving moments, the first being her father’s loving and supportive farewell the day she left Echuca to search for a lesbian community that was unavailable to her in Echuca and to pursue a musical career. “Don’t you forget, I’ll always love you – no matter what,” says her dad warmly.
Another compelling story is told about Tiddas’ (which means Sisters) visit to Thursday Island, an occasion when Bennett had an enlightening experience about island culture and her relationship to her totem, the turtle.
A darker story emerges when a yobbo in a remote pub calls out, “Show us your tits”, a taunt that triggers a grim memory of familial abuse when Bennett was a teenager. This incident became a key moment in her evolution because it allowed her to see her abuser as “small and pathetic” and so to move on from the abuse.
Bennett has warmth and a raw charm that was obviously part of her success with The Tiddas from 1990 to 200. Her portrayal of her feisty and argumentative relationship with the other women in Tiddas and her life journey has pathos and a great deal of humour. What this show lacks in style and finesse it gains in truth and honesty.
By Kate Herbert
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