Sunshine Super Girl | Andrea James & Brisbane Festival
“Why Me!? … Why not!?” …
This closing line of Sunshine Super Girl is so powerfully effective in its simplicity.
Evonne Goolagong, a true Australian icon, an underdog, a Blak woman thrust onto the international scene of competitive tennis when she was only a teenager. Winning titles, making headlines and being challenged personally to have a voice, a public opinion in a politically charged world; to speak out on behalf of the black minority on a global scale. These times, they are a-changing…
It was such a treat to walk into an immersive courtside experience at the QPAC Playhouse. The audience was split into two halves; I was seated in the on-stage area and we looked out across the stage to the Playhouse’s theatre seats; it was particularly sweet seeing people pick out their friends across this expanse and wave to them as we all got settled. It truly created a Wimbledon-worthy experience for the audience.
I eagerly awaited the start of the show to see how the lighting design, props, sets and choreography were incorporated into our immersive experience. Being on-stage and right in the midst of the action, I could see how the lighting rig had been modified for this unique staging experience. Performing, essentially ‘in-the-round’ every costume change, set change, character change and shift in storyline was executed in full view of the audience and the actors played to each side of the audience seamlessly. I was thrilled to see the clever use of lighting & sound design to create each experience of fishing lakeside with Evonne, sitting courtside or disco dancing in Knightsbridge, UK. As we moved through Evonne’s life, starting at the age of three; each actor truly embodied their role of family, friend, mentor, competitor, adversary or lover to weave the rich tapestry of story. Evonne maintained the role of steadfast narrator of her own tale, played impeccably by Ella Ferris.
“Why can’t I let my tennis do the talking?” A question posed on stage by the actress, who played Evonne. I can only imagine the pressure she must have had as she toured the globe. To train hard, stay in peak physical condition, to excel in her chosen sport, to win the highest titles…and to constantly be made into an attraction to sell tickets. She was billed as an amusement; the ‘Sunshine Super Girl’ a moniker given to Evonne by the press. Thank goodness this was the one that stuck! Some of the other descriptive words used for this brown skinned girl were both unimaginative and entirely cringe-worthy; the white-washed media of the late-60s and early-70s did nothing to help promote Evonne’s incredible tennis skill and work ethic, instead focusing on her as an Aboriginal, a ‘biscuit-coloured’ tennis player from the outback - shade from a racist press.
Evonne was managed by a white Australian team that ensured she toed the line and kept up the “social graces”, in keeping with the traditions of the whitewashed English tennis scene, taking deportment classes and learning how to waltz for public appearances. Partnered with the pressures from her first nations friends in Australia who wanted Evonne to use her public status to speak out on many issues, you can understand how she was torn. A particularly hard scene to watch was when they explained to her that to be allowed to play competitive tennis in South Africa during the apartheid, the government had to issue her a special visa granting her ‘white status’ as black people were not allowed to play or even attend these sporting events.
From growing up bush and having a happy childhood outside connected to country, Evonne’s family packed up and moved into town due an unspoken threat and fear of ‘The Black Car’; which all the kids were taught to hide from. Devastatingly this is a symbol of white Australian authorities coming to take away children from First Nations families; known as our stolen generation. A mere twist of fate saw the Goolagong family move into an old shopfront that housed a broken printing press and backed on to a tennis court. They lived next door to the Dunlop family - can you guess where the Goolagong’s borrowed shoes and sporting supplies for their kids first tennis matches!?
In our fast-paced world filled with technology and insular interactions on the internet, it truly pays to lift your head and have a yarn to the people sitting next to you in the theatre. I was seated next to Evonne’s nephew! It was the first play in a theatre that he’d ever experienced. What a sensational place to start! Seeing his Aunty immortalized in what I hope is a play that endures and continues touring as it truly has the beginnings of becoming an Australian masterpiece. It was heart-warming to watch audience members on both sides of the ‘court’ standing for an ovation as the actors took their final curtain call. I can’t remember the last time I leapt to my feet with such joie de vivre.
