1969 article in Britain's The Stage about Australian TV plays

From The Stage 24 Dec 1969 p 10

Drama Down Under From our own Correspondent 

ALTHOUGH home-produced weekly drama series in Australia are on the increase, plays are seldon presented. Apart from televised Melbourne Theatre Company productions some years ago, for commercial television one has to eo back to... 1961 when Peter Cotes and Joan Miller went Down Under for HSV-7 in Melbourne and were involved in four super produc tions that still have to be equalled. 

With the Australian Broad casting Commission it has been different. In the past they bravely have mounted produc tions of known overseas plays as well as a few specially written ones. They even pre sented an Australian Playhouse half-hour series, which showed up either the poor ability of Australian writers and/or the poor powers of play selection at the ABC. Soap opera For sometime however the ABC's dramatic output has been confined to a nightly soap opera called Bellbird, wh\ch is a kind of Coronation Street-cum- Mrs. Dale's Diary-cum-The Archers. There has been a highly efficiently produced and acted series Contrabandits now sold for re-runs on a commercial channel and replaced by a dullish Delta. In addition there was an excellent, but all too brief, comedy series, I've Married a Bachelor and a zany clever burlesque revue type series entitled The Greater Illustrated History of the Glorious Anti podes Show. 

Recently the ABC presented a weekly series of six Australian written plays of varying lengths, some of which had inexplicably been in cold storage more than a year. Since Australian plays are such a rarity, the writer religiously and sometimes tortuously sat through them all, to assess the common merits and demerits and whether any are worthy of overseas screen ing. 

The first, Dynasty by Tony Morphett, was taken from his novel of the same name. With far too many characters it became rather confusing and the plot far from exciting or gripping. Its main merits were some excellent performances from leading actors such as Brian James, Alan Hopgood, Kevin Miles and Mark McManus (the latter, now in England, has a leading role in the film "Ned Kelly Many changes in scene and location not always necessary added to the confusion, but direction and photography were good through out. It must have been a costly 50 minute production to mount. 

The Voyage Out, written and directed by John Croyston, told of a poet who had problems as a writer, mainly stemming from an insecurity complex developed over his lack of physical stature, terminating in his suicide. It started very well, with crisp dialogue, but gradu ally deteriorated. Dialogue, acting, directon and photo graphy were excellent, but plot interest simply was not sus tained. Exactly right in the leads were Ray Hartley and Pat Bishop as the poet and his wife, the former in fact would be an ideal choice for the lead in any film or play about Wee Georgie Wood. 

Tilly Landed on Our Shores unbelievingly winner of a 1968 award for television drama was a feeble attempt on a Peter Sellers-type theme, which in script form probably sug gested much comedy potential. In execution hardly anything could have been more ponde rously unfunny and, despite utilising the talents of a great number of top flight Australian artists, it sagged badly through out. Its authoress, Pat Flower, also provided the script for a very different kind of play. 

Fiends of the Family, which proved much better entertainment, although its theme was hackneyed. Three sisters murder their mother, bury her in the garden, mistrust each other and quarrel. The writing was derivative, but the play almost succeeded through the bravado performances of the three sisters Betty Lucas, Ruth Cracknel! and Judith Fisher; but ultimately the in completely conceived characters and the far-fetched story de feated them. 

First play Much was expected from The Cheerful Cuckold, the first play written specially for television by Alan Hopgood. He is one of Australia's foremost stage play wrights and the script had won an award as the best for 1968. It started out well about a young unversity lecturer neglecting his duties through an. oversexed wife but drifted off into practically nothing by the end. The author himself took the leading role and gave a powerful performance, but else where acting was not up to standard and the production far too slack. 

Final play in the series was Oriel Gray's The Torrents which incredibly was placed apparent ly equal first in a playwriting competition. It had a hackneyed theme of a small town news paper in the last century with a woman doing a man's job on the editorial side and trying to be accepted as an equal. The dialogue was good but unoriginal, whilst the acting ranged from competent to mediocre, doing little to assist. Good camerawork and the use of what seemed to be authentic locations was redeeming. Lack suspense 

For overseas only Fiends of the Family and The Voyage Out could, with certain reservations, be recommended. 

As always it has. been the scripting that mainly has been below standard; Australian writers seem incapable of writing a good and compelling last 20 minutes, and suspense is nearly always lack ing. Sometimes the acting has achieved really dizzy heights, all the more remarkable when one realises that in Australia actors have far less rehearsal time than overseas. 

Considering the lack of home bred drama, it is surprising that ABC productions are never re run although those emanting from overseas frequently are. There was for instance a very good production of Richard Beynon's The Shifting Heart, starring Madge Ryan and made when she was playing on the stage in Melbourne in 1968. It cries out for re-screening, but apparently has already been forgotten.