The sapphires australia biography of williams

Play by Tony Briggs

This article is about the play. For the film adaptation of the play, see The Sapphires (film).

The Sapphires is an Australian play written by Tony Briggs and directed by Wesley Enoch.^[1] It is set in 1968 (a year after the referendum, which symbolically expanded the rights of Aboriginal people) and it tells the story of The Sapphires, a singing group of four Yorta Yorta women who tour Vietnam during the war.^[2][3]

It was inspired by the true story of Briggs's mother, Laurel Robinson, and aunt, Lois Peeler, who toured Vietnam as singers.^[4] The pair slept on the stage, as Robinson recalled: "It was so scary – one night a bomb went off, the bed fell down and the place shook."^[5]

Though set at the time of increasing calls for Aboriginal rights, the play takes these issues seriously but in a way that does not detract from its fun and humour and adds to its entertainment value.^[4