Australian Theatre, Modernism and Patrick White: Governing Culture (Book review)
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Accepted Manuscript (AM)
Author(s)
Meyrick, Julian
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
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This short but compelling book tells the story of the Noble-prize winning writer Patrick White’s involvement in a then-emerging Adelaide Festival of the Arts with two of his best-known plays. The Ham Funeral and Night on Bald Mountain were recommended for production by the Festival’s Drama Committee in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Both were rejected by its Governors as too risky and “unsavoury”. These rejections were fateful, however, catalysing a debate about who has the right to decide what Australians see on their stages. This in turn fed into broader agitation against censorship laws, and against the apparatus of an ...
View more >This short but compelling book tells the story of the Noble-prize winning writer Patrick White’s involvement in a then-emerging Adelaide Festival of the Arts with two of his best-known plays. The Ham Funeral and Night on Bald Mountain were recommended for production by the Festival’s Drama Committee in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Both were rejected by its Governors as too risky and “unsavoury”. These rejections were fateful, however, catalysing a debate about who has the right to decide what Australians see on their stages. This in turn fed into broader agitation against censorship laws, and against the apparatus of an oppressive colonial paternalism. In the book, this paternalism is encountered at its most ridiculous. But it would not be right to conclude, and indeed the authors do not conclude, that it is a force banished from Australian culture together.
View less >
View more >This short but compelling book tells the story of the Noble-prize winning writer Patrick White’s involvement in a then-emerging Adelaide Festival of the Arts with two of his best-known plays. The Ham Funeral and Night on Bald Mountain were recommended for production by the Festival’s Drama Committee in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Both were rejected by its Governors as too risky and “unsavoury”. These rejections were fateful, however, catalysing a debate about who has the right to decide what Australians see on their stages. This in turn fed into broader agitation against censorship laws, and against the apparatus of an oppressive colonial paternalism. In the book, this paternalism is encountered at its most ridiculous. But it would not be right to conclude, and indeed the authors do not conclude, that it is a force banished from Australian culture together.
View less >
Journal Title
Theatre Research International
Volume
45
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2020 International Federation for Theatre Research. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Cultural studies
Literary studies
Arts & Humanities
Theater