City versus the Bush

Challenges and Changes (1915-1950)

A Word on the Cultural Cringe

Whilst the Australian identity started to define at the beginning of the twentieth century, there was still a view from many who were influential in Australian theatre that Australia was second best and second rate to Britain and Europe.

The cultural cringe is a term that refers to a ‘lack of confidence in Australian cultures and values.’ (in Gadaloff, 1991. p.23) Theatre audiences still identified closely with the British Empire and we were considered to be an outpost of convicts and cast-offs.  This notion affected actors and playwrights as they battled to establish an Australian theatre spirit both in the plays that were written and the actors who performed in them. Despite this attitude, some notable advancements were made which we will now consider.

Post World War 1

This was a time of great economic, cultural and historical changes in Australia. Local singers and comedians became popular:

• Gladys Moncrieff
• Don Nicol
• Cecil Kellaway

Musicals most popular were the quintessential ‘love stories’ set in the northern hemisphere and featuring simple plots with classic heroes, heroines and sidekicks. Other points to introduce to these decades in Australian drama include:

• There were few Australian musicals but a great many poems, novels and drama which highlighted the dichotomy between the bush and the city – a popular theme since the 1870’s.
• Many of the plays of the postwar era reflected the issues and concerns of the time and the ‘era’ of ‘realism’ in European theatre influenced the way playwrights began to write about Australia.

What were some of the more notable plays?

Louis Esson (1879-1943), theatre critic and dramatist wrote a number of plays, The Drovers, Dead Timber, Mother and Son, The Time is Not Yet Ripe that predominately defined life in the bush, the lonely life of the drover, the harshness of the nature and the hard life of the farmer.

I’ve lived a hard life, droving and horse breaking, station work and overlanding, the hard life of the bush, but there’s nothing better and death comes quick, before I’m played out, and that’s the way I wanted. (From ‘The Drovers’ as character Briglow Bill sums up his life) (in Crawford et al. 2003, p.278)

• Mother and Son was set in Gippsland in Victoria and relates the story of a bee keeper who tries to persuade her youngest son to marry a girl who loves him. Tragedy follows then the girl (who is does marry) runs away with the son of a squatter.
• Esson’s other plays The Woman Tamer, The Sacred Place and The Bride of Gospel Place were set in the city in inner Melbourne.

Fellow writer Vance Palmer also highlighted ‘the bush’ which he believed was the very heart of the Australian spirit and character.

• The Black Horse (1924) depicted the conflict between a husband and his wife on an outback station where their son eventual died.
• A Happy Family was less tragic and explored the rift between neighbours in the bush

Katherine Susannah Prichard (1883-1969) was firstly a political activist but wrote a good many plays many of which were not performed until the 1970’s.

• Brumby Innes looks at the life on a northern cattle station and won first prize in a 3 act play competition in 1927 but oddly was not performed until 1972. The content of this play would have been very interesting played at that time – a time of great feminism because the wife in the play is abused by her husband Innes. Other plays of Prichard’s Bid Me To Love, The Great Man were also very interesting plays, the first about the problems associated with an ‘open’ marriage and the latter about how to bring up a baby amidst the advice of well meaning friends and relatives.
• The Burglar explores socialism and capitalism.

Other plays of this period, after the First World War but just before the Great Depression reflected the mood of the period in Australian history:

• Possum Paddock (1919) written by female actor-manager and playwright Kate Howards was a successful comedy – so much so that:

(The Theatre Royal) was uproariously rushed, eager holiday makers tumbling over one another to get in and after the curtain had been drawn up the laughter would have put a circus crowd on the edge of the Never Never to the blush. (‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ 1919 in Crawford et al. 2003, p.279)

The Great Depression

This was a dark time for Australian theatre, low wages, little work and high unemployment. There was little money for theatre funding and the government was forced to put tax on theatre tickers – tickets to the movies were only one shilling (or ten cents) whilst theatre tickets cost around two shillings with a much higher tax. The cinema was a far cheaper attractive for entertainment!

Some theatre companies continued to try and produce Australian works but it was hard going.

• George Landen Dann’s (‘Little Theatre’) play In Beauty it is Finished (1931) was highly criticised and was considered inappropriate and ‘scandalous’ for the time. Its content included a story about two ‘loose’ girls in the city, one who end up teaming up with an Aboriginal fisherman. However when the play finally opened in Brisbane it was hailed as a play with ‘good dramatic sense’.
• Betty Roland’s ‘A Touch of Silk’ was a story about a young French bride and how she adapts with her shell-shocked Australian husband in an isolated farming community in Australia.

Unfortunately many theatres closed in the 1930’s not only because of the tax but also because of the competition with gramophones, the radio and the ‘talkies’. (Talking pictures!)

In Sydney at the end of 1935, only two theatres remained open – ‘The New Tivoli Theatre’ and ‘The Theatre Royal’. Many other theatres were converted to cinemas.

Radio Drama

We see the first Australian radio station 2BL (now 702AM) opened in Sydney in 1923 and the first musical comedy A Southern Maid was broadcast in 1924 on the second station 2FC (576AM).

• Radio dramas were in demand from this time and local themes and characters were very popular. Shortened classics were also broadcast: Oedipus Rex, Dr Faustus and various Shakespearean plays being some examples.
• The 1950’s saw ‘theatre’ shows on most radio stations and competitions were popular with Sunday night listeners.
• Customers were secured by company sponsors such as the ‘Lux’ theatre and the ‘Caltex’ theatre.
• These radio dramas provided a ‘home’ for actors and writers during this dark time in Australian live theatre but when actors did secure live theatre jobs they would often be written out of specific radio dramas.
• Whilst the Australian accent was popular in radio plays such as On Our Selection, actors were taught to speak with a precise British accent which was considered much more acceptable than the slang of the ‘Australian’ language.
• Radio serials became popular but gave actors continuous work. Blue Hills was the longest running serial on radio running for 5795 episodes over 33 years (1941-1976) – a spin off series written by the same writer Gwen Meredith was called The Lawsons.

Post War – Changes and Stages

After World War 11 live theatre finally re-awakened in Australia. The Old Vic Theatre Company toured with Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh and this was encouraging to other local professional companies – audiences were finally returning to live theatre!

• Companies thrived in all capital cities and also in many smaller country towns.
• Actors played in many well known European plays written by Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg and Shaw.
• Themes moved away more and more from the ‘bush’ and more to issues concerning urban Australia.

Sumner Locke-Elliott (1917-1991) became famous for his plays which were humorous, honest and portrayed interesting characters.

• Rusty Bugles was set in 1944 in an ordnance depot in the Northern Territory – it was one of the first plays to use ‘rough’ Australian language and caused quite some controversy.
• He also wrote The Invisible Circus, Interval, The Little Sheep Run and Goodbye to the Music.
• He migrated to New York in 1948 and became a successful novelist and writer for television. His near autobiographical novel Careful He Might Hear You won the Miles Franklin Award for Literature in 1963 and was made into a prize winning film.

Theatre Companies

During the 1930’s and the 1940’s many theatre companies were established in the major capital cities – they were usually attached to one theatre and they would prefer plays under one director or a number of visiting directors.

Notable companies:

• Independent Theatre Company (Sydney), founded by Doris Fitton in 1930.
• Ab Intra Studio Theatre (Adelaide)
•  the Gregan McMahon Players and the Melbourne Little (Victoria)
• Brisbane Amateur Theatres and the Twelfth Night Theatre (Queensland)
• Theatre Council of Western Australia (15 theatre groups) Western Australia

The New Theatre (Radical) established across all capital cities with left wing political themes and issues. This was a very interesting theatre movement.

• It was dedicated to the ‘the workers’ and it was in this theatre movement that actors, students, journalists, artists and trade unionists began improvise.
• The kind of improvisation they used was called ‘agitprop’ (agitation and propaganda) and was developed as a social protest.

Theatre groups continued to grow from this time throughout the States and  in universities and teaching colleges.

References

Crawford. J. (et.al). 2003. ‘Acting in person and in style.’ Melbourne: McGraw Hill

Gadaloff, J. (1991) ‘Australian drama.’ Brisbane: Jacaranda Press