In South African history Sophiatown, apart from violence and poverty, was the renowned "mixed suburb" in the days of Apartheid, affectionately remembered for the lively politics, music, jazz and blues. It was where people lived together, undivided by colour, before the authorities tore it apart. Sophiatown, the musical production, played tribute to this society and also formed part of the Market Theatre's 40th birthday celebrations.
"Initially I wasn't quite sure how I was going to use the Dalis units on the show because they're cyc lights and I didn't have a cyc," commented Denis. "But I was not going to let that stop me! I ended up using three units for footlights, which saved my bacon, as Sophiatown is set in is a period where people often wore hats. Although people didn't necessarily wear them indoors, the director wanted the cast to wear the hats all the way through. A lot of actors don't know how to wear hats and you end up struggling to see their eyes. Having a set of footlights solves a whole bunch of problems."
A footlight fan at the best of times, Denis adds that although the Dalis is beautifully compact as a ground row, it sits about 150mm off the deck which is a little big for a footlight. "In the case of Sophiatown, it didn't matter because the stage was raised so I was able to go below stage level anyway and it worked really well."
(Jim Evans)
