by FilmInk Staff
More than six decades after the ABC rejected it as too controversial, an overlooked work by one of Australia’s most important playwrights is finally getting its first Australian performance – thanks to a team with a particular interest in resurrecting forgotten and censored Australian plays.
In 1960, Australian playwright Alan Seymour [pictured] was commissioned by the ABC to write a television play. The result was Lean Liberty, a provocative drama exploring political persecution, personal freedom and the consequences of refusing to conform.
But the ABC wasn’t prepared to broadcast it.
Set against the atmosphere of Cold War Australia, when anti-Communist sentiment and political suspicion were widespread, Lean Liberty tells the story of Peter Jameson, an engineer whose past membership of the Communist Party threatens to destroy his professional and personal life.
When his employer introduces a questionnaire requiring staff to disclose details of their private lives, Jameson refuses to cooperate. Despite being a capable and valued employee, he is soon facing dismissal unless he agrees to sign a declaration of political loyalty.
Jameson’s refusal sets off a chain of events that costs him his job, places his marriage under enormous strain and leaves him facing an uncertain future. Even the prospect of a lucrative job in China offers no easy escape, as that opportunity also comes with political expectations and demands for conformity.
The ABC reportedly considered the play too sympathetic to the Communist cause and declined to produce it. In an additional indignity, Seymour was not paid for his commissioned script.
Rather than let the work disappear, Seymour took it to Britain, where it was eventually produced and broadcast by ITV in 1962. Directed by Ray Menmuir, the production retained its Australian setting and featured a largely Australian cast.
Now, more than 66 years after its original rejection, Lean Liberty is finally coming home.
On Wednesday 9 December 2026, Sydney’s New Theatre will host a live script reading of the play, directed by Denny Lawrence and produced by Stephen Vagg. It will be the first time Australian audiences have had the opportunity to experience this remarkable piece of Australian television history performed on home soil.
The project also reunites Lawrence and Vagg, who previously collaborated on a reading of another long-neglected Australian play, Reunion Day.
Written by Peter Yeldham, Reunion Day also had a controversial history. Its examination of Australian attitudes towards war, the Anzac tradition and national identity brought it into conflict with the cultural sensitivities of its time.
The play’s revival in 2022 attracted considerable attention, including an interview with Lawrence in FilmInk and coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald under the headline ‘The revival of the Anzac play the censors wouldn’t let us see 60 years ago’.
That earlier collaboration provides an interesting precedent for Lean Liberty. Both productions shine a light on Australian plays that challenged the prevailing attitudes of their day and, for various reasons, failed to find a place in the mainstream cultural landscape.
For Lawrence and Vagg, these readings offer more than a chance to revive an interesting piece of theatrical history. They allow contemporary audiences to discover the arguments, anxieties and social attitudes that shaped Australian writing, while considering how relevant those concerns remain today.
For Lawrence, the opportunity to direct Lean Liberty is particularly exciting.
“I’m a big admirer of Alan’s work and it’s very exciting to be directing the Australian premiere of this story which is set entirely in Australia,” he says. “It’s also a thrill to be doing it at the New Theatre which has such a strong history of political engagement in Australia.”
Seymour is, of course, best remembered for The One Day of the Year, his celebrated play examining Australian attitudes towards Anzac Day, generational conflict and national identity. First performed in 1960, it became one of the most significant works in Australian theatre.
The central questions in Lean Liberty have hardly lost their relevance.
How much should an employer be entitled to know about an individual’s political beliefs? Should people be judged for their past associations rather than their present actions? And how much should someone be expected to sacrifice in order to maintain their personal principles?
Although the play emerges from a very particular period in Australian history, its examination of ideological conformity, freedom of expression and the pressures of workplace and public scrutiny feels surprisingly contemporary.
The reading features an accomplished cast including Paul Bertram, Brandon Burke, John Derum, Nathan Farrow, Matt Foster, Noel Hodda, Nicholas Papademetriou, Sarah-Jane Starr, Chris Stollery and John Stone.
For audiences interested in Australian theatre, political history or the rediscovery of neglected Australian writing, this is a rare opportunity to encounter a work that was effectively denied a place in its own country’s cultural history.
The Lawrence and Vagg collaboration is also a reminder that there are still fascinating stories to be recovered from Australia’s theatrical past. Following Reunion Day, Lean Liberty is another opportunity to hear a voice that was once considered too challenging for its time.
More than six decades ago, Lean Liberty was considered too controversial for Australian television. Its long-delayed Australian premiere offers an opportunity to revisit not only Alan Seymour’s work, but also a period when political fear could determine which stories Australians were allowed to see and hear.
A live script reading of Alan Seymour’s Lean Liberty
When: Wednesday 9 December 2026, 7pm–10pm
Where: New Theatre, 542 King Street, Newtown, NSW
Director: Denny Lawrence
Producer: Stephen Vagg
Tickets: $5 (to cover room hire)
Bookings: Book tickets through TryBooking
