Three Plays For The Australian Stage

Excerpt from Three Plays for the Australian Stage This selection from my later plays is arranged in chronological order. Excluding my first attempt at writing for the stage, "Tapu," a Maori Comic Opera, completed with the assistance of the late J. C. Williamson, during my engagement with him as literary secretary, and subsequently produced by him throughout Australasia, my talc of plays begins with "Ironside Penruddock," a Cromwellian romantic play. This was my only effort in romantic drama, and since then I have devoted myself to modern comedy. The first in this line was "The Tame Cat"; then followed in order, "The New Chum," a light comedy of the Maoriland backblocks; "The Wasters"; "Galahad Jones," a dramatisation of my novel of the same name; "Mrs. Pretty and the Premier"; and an Australian children's play. Another Australian comedy is now in the arduous process of being re-written. Meantime I have written about a dozen one-act comedies. "The Tame Cat" was produced in Sydney by an amateur organisation on July nth, 1908, and subsequently revived. "The Wasters" was produced by the Adelaide Literary (now Repertory) Theatre on August 27th, 1910. "Galahad Jones," written in 1910, has not yet been produced, nor has "Mrs. Pretty and the Premier," written in 1912, though it is down for presentation by the Melbourne Repertory Theatre this year. In each case the run of the play was for one consecutive night. One of my one-act plays has been produced five times by different organisations, including the Sydney Stage Society and the Adelaide Literary Theatre; another has had a matinee performance in London. A volume of these one-acters is in contemplation. These plays were written for the Australian Stage. One of the many drawbacks to their production is that there is no Australian Stage. These plays do not claim to be Repertory plays: they were written for the Australian commercial theatre-though it must be admitted that, so far, the controlling destinies of the Australian commercial stage have not quite grasped my intention. The reception, and rejection, of these comedies by various Australian theatrical managers has invariably been polite. The publication of these plays is not to be regarded as a claim for their consideration as literature, even dramatic literature. They were deliberately built for the commercial theatre, and, judged by the ethics of the theatrical manager, with some expert assistance from the box-office. they stand or fall. Their appearance in book-form is a mere formal filing of certain attempts to deal dramatically with Australian conditions viewed from an Australian standpoint by the creation of characters essentially Australian. They do not deal with the Bush. My conviction is that the Australian town-dweller is as typically and as distinctively national as the extinct bushranger. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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These three plays - Open for Inspection, Manly Mates and My Henry Lawson are a farce, a comedy and a drama first presented by the Peninsula Theatre Company in Sydney. Enjoy reading about Sydney's famous real estate tug of wars, a taste of 'real life' political corruption and the fascinating true story of the relationship between Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson.

Winton's first play, Rising Water, sees middle-aged fringe-dwellers Col, Baxter and Jackie living aboard neighbouring boats in a crowded marina. Each of them nurses secret wounds and anxieties, and although their vessels are ocean-going craft, none seems likely to ever leave the safe confines of the harbour. They are hiding from the world behind and beyond. Signs of Life marks the return of Georgie Jutland and Lu Fox from Winton's Miles Franklin-winning novel Dirt Music. Alone in her farmhouse at night, Georgie hears noises out on the highway - car doors, voices, weeping. Then a figure emerges from the darkness. A man seeking help. His sister is out in the car, screaming. Can Georgie trust them? And what to do when guests settle in and show no inclination of moving on? In Shrine, Adam and Mary Mansfield are struggling to come to terms with their son's death in a car crash. Adam has sold his winery, and his trips to the beach house have become more frequent - anything to avoid Mary's smouldering grief. One day a young woman arrives at his door. She has something to share- the story of his son's final hours.

Contains the scripts of nine colonial plays, each script has been carefully edited or reconstructed from unique manuscripts or rare colonial printed editions.