Let the sunshine in with Wesley Enoch’s classic, writes Phil Brown

REVIEW: Wesley Enoch’s classic musical play The Sunshine Club makes for a great night out, even if it touches on one of the darker issues in Australian society, writes Phil Brown.

The Sunshine Club is on at the Playhouse at QPAC until the end of July.

When was the last time you heard Nundah mentioned in a play? Possibly never, right?

But the popular suburb on Brisbane’s northside gets a mention in Wesley Enoch’s classic musical play The Sunshine Club. Because it rhymes with thunder.

It also rhymes with chunder … but we’ll leave that sort of rhyming to Men at Work.

There’s a line in the musical about hearing thunder from The Gabba to Nundah. I love how local this classic from 1999 is. This revival is stage magic and I love it.

It opens Thursday but I went to a preview Wednesday because I was double booked. If the preview was a good indication, which I think it was, this is going to be a winner for Queensland Theatre and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), who collaborated to reboot this work.

It was a great night out. Watching a great Queensland play and then coming out to find that we had just one State of Origin III, I mean hell, it doesn’t get any better than that. Queenslander!

I went with my son who is 21 and we both agreed that it was terrific.

He is a great barometer of taste for me.

Roxanne McDonald plays Aunty Faith the font of wisdom for returned soldier Frank Doyle, played by Marcus Corowa. Picture: Brett Boardman

What’s it about? An Indigenous serviceman, Frank Doyle (Marcus Corowa) who comes home from fighting for Australia in World War II only to find the racial divide is still as toxic as ever.

He tries to enter the famous Cloudland ballroom, then in Bowen Hills, but is told black fellas aren’t welcome. So he starts his own dance joint, The Sunshine Club, where people can mix happily regardless of race.

Playwright Wesley Enoch based the musical on true stories of such clubs popping up in Brisbane after World War II. In doing so he has created a work that is for all Australians, a charming and compelling story that goes to the heart of the what reconciliation should be all about, people getting together.

It is shocking to think Aboriginal people and, during the war, black American serviceman, were limited as to what parts of the city they could go to and that they suffered curfews.

Frank Doyle wants to change all that.

In the process he falls in love with singer Rose Morris (Irena Lysiuk) whose father is a minister of the local church, Reverend Percy Morris, played by one of our finest thespians, Andrew Buchanan.

Wesley Enoch who is remounting the musical The Sunshine Club about a dance club in post-war Brisbane. Picture: Supplied

Needless to say the relationship between Rosie and Frank causes trouble and while there’s lots of fun and humour in this work it’s also brutally honest about the racial divide that used to exist and still does to, thankfully, a much lesser degree.

It is written and directed by Wesley Enoch, a brilliant playwright and former artistic director of Queensland Theatre and the Sydney Festival.

He has come home to live in Queensland which is great and he is celebrating that by rebooting a production that was groundbreaking on the performing arts scene and one that introduced us to Indigenous stars including Stephen and David Page and our own Roxanne McDonald, who plays Frank’s wise aunty Faith.

It is lovely to have her revisiting that role. When Roxanne first played it she had to grey her hair for it but now she’s actually the age of her character and she is the solid rock of this show.

Irena Lysiuk, who has an amazing voice, is terrific as Rose.

Marcus Corowa is also terrific, commanding and utterly believable as Frank.

I thought it was interesting that, when he returns from war, Rose wants to hear all about it but Frank says he does not want to talk about it.

My dad was a World War II digger too and he never really spoke about his war experiences in Borneo either.

Irena Lysiuk sings up a storm in The Sunshine Club. Picture: Brett Boardman

The music was written by John Rodgers and it’s jazzy as hell with a fantastic band on stage under the musical direction of Wayne Freer.

The songs are catchy and the music was so good, the jitterbugging fab. The only thing missing was the Andrews Sisters.

All the performances are real and compelling and Bangarra Dance Theatre’s beau, Dean Riley Smith, is very funny as Frank’s mate Dave Daylight who comes up with the name Sunshine Club as a response to Cloudland.

Frank’s sister Pearl is played by Naarah who is vivacious and equally great. I might have a couple of quibbles but I can’t think of them right now. All I can think of is how much I enjoyed it.

It gets heavy at times but so it should considering the subject matter. I wondered how they would end it because endings are tricky.

But Wesley Enoch is a master and he ties it up with quite a twist but of course I cannot tell you about that. Just go and lap it up and tap your feet to the jazz and if you live at Nundah revel in the fact that your suburb gets a mention!

The Sunshine Club is on at the Playhouse, QPAC, at the Cultural Precinct on the corners of Grey and Melbourne Streets, until July 30.

For more information please visit qpac.com.au