Queensland Theatre’s The Sunshine Club is a show filled with all the razzle-dazzle that musical theatre audiences are used to, but it’s set on our own soil. First Nations boy Frank Doyle returns to Brisbane from the battlefields of WWII filled with optimism and ready to start the next chapter of his young life. All he wants to do is spend time with the girl next door Rose but in 1946 Brisbane it’s still frowned upon for black and white to be together. Filled with hope and defiance Frank sets up his own ballroom, The Sunshine Club, where anyone and everyone can come together… to dance.
The Sunshine Club shines a light on a part of our history that we can be proud of – a community of Brisbane people, black and white, determined to experience the very best of life together. This is reconciliation, love, in action.
Lighting designer Ben Hughes was not given a brief as such saying it was more talking about responses to the material and where we want to take it, both individually and collectively.
“Playwright and director Wesley Enoch definitely wanted some of the classic musical theatre elements, but also for it to be true to what the show was trying to achieve,” commented Ben. “For myself, I wanted the show to feel appropriate for the period, but also fun, enjoyable and accessible. Some of the themes in the show are dark, but a lot of the time the lighting needs to be sunshine to oppose that. There are also some magic moments that needed to sit within the action on stage. On one level it’s a love story, a doomed love story; on another, it is a show about hope.”
Ben adds that Jake Nash’s design is extraordinary and has a lot of moving flown elements, so grid space was at an absolute premium. The flown shimmer clouds acted as a roof on the playing space, so lighting through and around this was a challenge. At the same time of course that much shimmer is always going to look absolutely stunning!
Various flown festoon and bud lights are used in keeping with the period feel. The five-piece band are on a moving truck in the period world of the show, so things like custom music stands and associated lighting were part of keeping that truth.
The rig was made up of the QPAC Playhouse in-house equipment: Martin MAC Encore Profiles and Washes, Prolight ECLIPSE CT+ LED and Robert Juliat Dalis 860 cyc floods.
“I also added some incandescent ETC Source4 profiles to help with the period feel in some moments,” said Ben. “The set electrics were built by Queensland Theatre’s wonderful production team.
“As with what seems like all productions over the last few years Covid had an impact during rehearsals. All the music was live without any click-track, so much of the execution of the show was dependent on the show-call of our wonderful DSM Tenneale Rogers. Much of the execution was also making sure a very modern LED and moving light rig didn’t take us away from the magic of the 1940s. Definitely not a show for moving lights to live move!”
Photos: Brett Boardman
