The costumes represent the community of people who have experienced love at Wayside, which is all inclusive. The characters, or rather the people, you meet in Wayside Bride are honest and true. The costumes needed to conjure, whilst being in response to the actor stepping into that story. So the costumes hope to pay tribute to those real stories but in a way that fits on someone else.

There are many costume details in the script that Alana Valentine (playwright) had provided for us to springboard into the authenticity of the story. Rennie Ellis, a photographer who is prominent for capturing Kings Cross during the 1970s was a key source of inspiration for Mikey (Set Designer), Eamon, Hannah and myself. Ellis shows us the expansive community that was held by Kings Cross, the colour and chaos or as Alana might put it, in one of my favourite lines of the play, ‘(the) random and chaotic and full of tatty, grimy glamour’.

The Light Shining costumes aim to speak to a larger community than what one might think to be possible with the 10 performers (8 cast, 2 musicians) in the show. We worked to put a portrait of society onstage, a collective of various social functions, context and class. We looked at what protests and the oppressors look like today, around the world and locally to inform the costumes in the show. Eamon included various subtle costume changes throughout the production that build much needed clarity as we move between characters scene to scene.

I communicate Costume Designs by sketching the line drawing out and then putting the image into Photoshop. I then underlay in fabrics and colour to help nut out the detailed choices in the costume. They are pretty rough around the edges, but I like to think that means the drawing tells the viewer that it remains active and open to process.

(Check out more of Ella’s wonderful drawings in the galleries below!)

The costume approach to the two shows are different however the ideas, the fittings, the conversations were conceived side by side so of course things have cross pollinated – one of the aspects the team found exciting about making the works in unison. Both plays are for the ensemble and for the community and the idea of a collective palette was always on our mind.

The ambition of the Rep Season as a whole is huge, all departments felt this and the Costume Department certainly felt this in the scale! We had over 32 costumes to resolve in Wayside alone and in Light Shining, the production required all costume elements to be doubled (due to how they are treated during the show). Whilst this might not compare to say a musical, splitting one’s brain across the demands of both shows felt challenging. It took a village – we had an amazing collection of people who passed through the department throughout the build period to help realise the many costume elements of the shows.