by Stephen Vagg
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Lady in Danger by Max Afford
Bright murder mystery screwball comedy, the sort of thing Hollywood churned out all the time in the 1940s. This was Adelaidean Max Afford’s contribution, which even made it to Broadway (as well as being filmed by the ABC in 1959), and it’s a shame it was never picked up by Hollywood. It’s too dated now for a screen version, but it would be a fun thing to do for a community group – Lady in Danger is one of those actor-proof plays ready made for amateurs and would be a fun night at the theatre if the ticket prices weren’t too high. You can source a copy easy enough here and it’s in the public domain.
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The Square Ring by Ralph Peterson
Peterson, best known for My Name’s McGooley What’s Yours? had a big success on the West End with this play, a behind the scenes account of a night in a boxing ring. It was adapted with changes in a 1953 British film, but the play is better, a more condensed version of the story with a powerful climax. This would be ideal for putting on at, say, an all-boys’ school who are sick of producing Twelve Angry Men. The text is mysteriously tricky to track down, and you might have to go to the State Library of NSW (who have Peterson’s papers).
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The Slaughter of St Teresa’s Day by Peter Kenna
I’m surprised this one isn’t revived more, as it has a terrific central part – Tilly Devine-like gangster who’s sent her only daughter to be educated at a convent – and a great concept, daughter comes back on the day Tilly’s having a party with her gangster cronies, and a man sets out to seduce mum and daughter. This could be a film, TV series or a revival – I’d actually go the first two because Kenna doesn’t quite nail the plotting possibilities in his tale; IMHO anyway. You can get a copy of it here.
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The Cell by Robert Wales
Messed up nuns running a school for delinquent girls in the 1960s. Would make a great film, TV series or even just done on stage straight. You could go anywhere with this story.. art-house, drive-in exploitation, feminism, MAGA… or a combination of all of the above. You can get a copy here via the old Samuel French.
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The Tower by Hal Porter
Full blooded melodrama set in Colonial Hobart with cruel aristocrats, creepy children, hunky ex-convicts shagging everything that moves, murder, storms and people falling off towers. I’m really surprised this didn’t get a run at the movies in the 1970s; it seems like a natural Tim Burstall subject. This was published in a collection of Australian plays in early 1963, which isn’t hard to find.
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Shipwreck by Douglas Stewart
I wanted to put a Stewart play on this list and you could easily go with Fire on the Snow, his account of Scott’s expedition to the Antarctic, or Ned Kelly, his far too long look at Australia’s most famous bushranger – and both are, admittedly, more skilled than Shipwreck which looks at the Batavian Mutiny off the WA coast. For those unaware, this was a particularly full on and bloody episode of the Dutch behaving badly – starvation, lifeboats, sex slavery, massacres, and fightback. Plenty of action and a skilled director would love it, which is why I picked it. It’s verse drama, so realistically you’d only do it on stage. You can buy a copy here.
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Swamp Creatures by Alan Seymour
Seymour’s best known for The One Day of the Year, which doesn’t need my help (like The Shifting Heart, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll or the works of Patrick White), but his first stage work could do with a little love. That tale of two messed-up spinsters, as they were once known, living in a swamp, offers two splendid lead roles and plenty of atmosphere for a revival or film adaptation. This was acclaimed in its day yet it’s weirdly hard to get a copy of the script – you have to go to a library.
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Night of the Ding Dong by Ralph Peterson
My second Peterson play. This is a genuinely funny look at a Russian invasion scare in Colonial Adelaide, and if it lacks a third act, there is plenty of great roles and funny moments. You can buy a copy through Current Press here.
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Burst of Summer by Oriel Gray
Gray’s writings are of their time (fifties lefty theatre, school of Clifford Odets), but it had a solid structure and characterisation and provides a powerful story: an Aboriginal woman adjusts to life in a small town after starring in a movie, at a time of racial unrest. I’d love to see this done on stage by an Aboriginal director, with the dialogue pruned a little. The play was published in a collection of 1960s plays by Currency Press.
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The Tape Recorder by Pat Flower
A gipping thriller about a secretary tormented by a recorded voice, this was one of the greatest Australian TV plays and was filmed for TV in Britain, Canada, Belgium, the US and Italy. Flower turned it into a stage play, which was published in The Best Short Plays of 1969, but also elsewhere.
There are other plays from this time – no, I haven’t forgotten Rusty Bugles, I just think it really lacks story, and I have a fondness for the balls to the wall violence of Anthony Coburn’s Bastard Country. And there’s a bunch that I simply haven’t read. But I thought it was worth curating this little list for people, because we have a lot of theatrical heritage out there to mine/exploit/rip off.
