Australian TV Plays: GMH - The One Day of the Year (7 July 1962)

GMH - The One Day of the Year (7 July 1962)

Adaptation of the classic play.

Premise

Alf’s son Hughie and his girlfriend Jan plan to document Anzac Day for the university newspaper, focusing on the drinking on Anzac Day. For the first time in his life Hughie refuses to attend the dawn service with Alf. When he watches the march on television at home with his mother and Wacka, he is torn between outrage at the display and love for his father.

Cast

Syd Conabere as Alf
Stewart Weller as Wacka
Dennis Miller as Hughie
Elaine Cusack as Jan Castle
Bunney Brooke as Dot Cook

Original play

The play was inspired by an article in the University of Sydney newspaper Honi Soit criticising Anzac Day and Seymour's own observations of how ex-servicemen behaved on that day. The character of Alf was based on Seymour's brother in law.

The play was rejected by the Adelaide Festival of Arts Board of Governors in 1960, but made its debut on 20 July 1960 as an amateur production by the Adelaide Theatre Group. Jean Marshall, the Director, and those involved in the Adelaide production received death threats. The first professional season was in April 1961 at the Palace Theatre in Sydney. It proved controversial and Seymour also received death threats however it was popular and there have been productions ever since.

In 1961 Seymour travelled to London where the play was directed by Raymond Menmuir at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

C Ballantyne Vincent Committee "he Elizabethan Theatre Trust was divided in its patronage of “ The One Day of the Year”. One side of the Trust was hating it and the other side of the Trust was ready to sponsor it with small money. The script was tendered to the theatre to which I belong in South Australia. We thought it was a good script. We suggested that it go to the Adelaide Festi- val of Arts. It was turned down because of its theme. It was put on by the local body. A Trust producer visited here, saw it, and took it for production in other States. “ The Ham Funeral “ struggle followed a similar pattern -a belief in a script by a small production body. Do you mean that the Trust was not aware of the virtues of “ The Ham Funeral “ until they were revealed in Ade- laide?-It was opposed to it; strongly opposed to it. Does that tie up with your argument that the Trust is the best body to open a fresh theatre group?-It docs. The Trust made a mistake-a very bad mistake, in my opinion-over “The Ham Funeral”, and perhaps it made a confused gesture over “ The One Day of the Year “. That does not invalidate my point. All production bodies make mistakes. We must manage with what is the best possible production instrument available, and the Trust is the best available.

It was entered in Miles Franklin in 1963. See here. George Turner and Thea Astley won see here.

My thoughts on the play.

I did see the play performed on stage, years ago, in Sydney - a strong production, Ron Haddrick was in it. The edition of the play I read was in Henry Kippax's 1963 collection of Australian plays that also included Ned Kelly and The Tower.

I've always liked this play. It is simple, but effective. It is based on a universal theme - the generation gap, the educated son battling against his more working class father - with the added appeal of being about Anzac Day.

Anzac Day became very popular in the 1990s. I remember this confused my parents, for whom it wasn't that important. They were of the same generation as Hughie in this play - baby boomers who had to grow up in the shadow of the 'greatest generation'. You would not have been able to escape the war during the 1950s; it defined Australia's foreign policy and was the topic, it seemed, of every second British movie.

Hughie's conflict with his father, Alf, is well drawn. Seymour writes with a great deal of empathy and warmth for both characters - he knows Alf is a man of prejudice and frustration, but Seymour feels for him. The female characters are, has often been commented, less effective. Dot, the mum, is someone who other others have scenes with, rather than a fully three-dimensional person. You need her in the play; it's just a shame she wasn't given more to do. Jan, Hughie's new girlfriend, isn't depicted with as much warmth as the men, but at least has something stronger to play - upper class, dogged, very pointed on Anzac Day. She's the one who writes the text, not Hughie.

The "X factor" of the play is Wacka, the World War One veteran. His account of the actual battle at Gallipoli is a show stopper; it was on stage and is on the page.

I can imagine this adapting very well to television - only five characters, one set. There is a story, it's universal. It's not as powerful as Summer of the Seventeenth Doll but is still very strong and it boggles the mind it was never turned into a feature film.

Production

In May 1962 General Motors announced it would be made for TV. See here.

The production was produced by GTV-9 in Melbourne after a 16 week run of the show in which 28,000 people saw the show. It was estimated 300,000 would see the television production. Some of the language from the original play was cut.

It was the first of three plays on The General Motors Hour that year. The cast were all members of the Melbourne Union Theatre Repertory Company, which originally presented the play in Melbourne and toured three states. Bunny Brooke won a Best Actress Award for her performance see here

It was Judith Arthy's debut.

Rod Kinnear directed.

Cost of it and Manhaul between 3,000 to 3,500 see here.

Reception

The TV critic for the Sydney Morning Herald said the shortened adaptation "suffered much less than might have been expected in its transfer" to television, saying it "sometimes tended to focus more sharply the growing and bitter awareness of the increasing estrangement between an ill-educated, soured lift-driver and his university student son. On' the other hand, some scenes of richly meaningful theatrical impact missed badly."

The TV critic for The Age said the "subject of this play overshadow the acting and the sets, giving the production a sleek look that it did not entirely merit."

TV Times praised the production.

Frank Roberts of the Bulletin called it "awful".

"Have you seen any Australian dramatic productions that you regarded as of good standard?-Yes, I have. I saw one television production called " The «One» «Day» «of» «the» «Year» ", which I thought was excellent. I believe it was produced in Melbourne, although I am not certain. It" See here here

R Walker said rated 26 in Melbourne and 8 in Sydney see here. .

A section of his review:

Alan Seymour’s “One Day of the Year” is a bloody awful play but no one seems to have said so. It is about as shallow, insincere, and downright dis honest in parts, as a play can get, and its gentle critics rate the same notices. When Americans try to portray Aus tralia and its inhabitants in television and sprinkle the script with vernacular absurdities, our critics either foam or guffaw, but which of them snarled when Alf Cook asked Miss North Shore whether she was English, and she cried, “No, I’m a dinki-di Aussie.” Or when he assured her, in dinki-di Aussie language, “Youse’ll be sweet”? Shades of the much criticised Down Under Caper. HPhe central figure in “One Day” is a A returned soldier from W.W.2, a lift driver who is a “bloody Australian”, and is jack of “bloody Poms and bloody Eyeties” and other bloody foreigners who look down their bloody noses at him in his bloody lift. Mad with the xenophobia, he starts training for Anzac Day, the one day of the year when he really knows who he is, a “bloody Aus tralian”. Every year he has taken his son to the Dawn Service and to see the March. But at University his son Hughie meets this North Shore Girl, whose father was in the war too but doesn’t talk about it. They plan to do a words and picture story exposing the sorrier side of the Great Beer Up, and the son is torn between filial loyalty and his natural loathing for Anzac Day as he has seen it over the years. As a try for the London market, as an oddity w’hich English audiences might find pitifully amusing, confirming the general opinion of Australians, the play had some point, if only to line its author’s pockets. But as an effort to say something to Australians about Australians it’s as genuine as a Woolloomooloo Yank’s accent. In a country which has absorbed a million “bloody foreigners” with a minimum of xenophobia, though with other faults, Alf Cook is a typical. As a lift driver he is likewise. As an Anzac pounding parent, likewise. To accept the verity of “One Day”, it would be necessary to accept the notion that no one in Alf’s family, or his silent mate Wacker, has ever told him politely but firmly to put a bloody sock in it; that his son has waited 17 or 18 years to rebel, and then very mildly and uncer tainly; that a family of this kind would be pointedly and excessively rude to a girl their son had brought home, or that she would make such a speech to them as, “As you know, there’s been more rubbish written about Anzac Day than anything else in Australia.” That but isn’t that enough? The great defect in this play, on stage or television, is that the author has little knowledge, and most of that snobbish, of the kinds of people he has attempted to portray, upstairs or downstairs in society. It is a pity, because he had the makings of a good drama. After a preposterous first act, he had a strong second act, and what could have been a good third act, minus a few idiocies. No modern drama can survive on such trash as, ‘They’re Australian. Are they? They’re what it was, we’re what it’s going to be.” If that were so, the future would be grim indeed. It would be in the hands of youth whose members take 18 years to realise, “Maybe I’ll never grow up till I can accept things as they are, and not be ashamed.” In the General Motors Hour introduc tion, by Harry Dearth, this was pres cribed as an important, adult play, indicating the increasing maturity of playwrights and audiences. This pre tentious statement was followed by an opening shot absurdly similar to the closing one in The Flintstones, and a first act reminiscent of some of the wildest times at McCackie Mansion. A valid expose of the Anzac myth could be written. But this was not it.

Frank Roberts was possibly the worst TV critic in Australian history.

The TV movie won Best Drama and Best Actor (for Syd Conabere) at the Logie Awards of 1963.

In Parliament

Senator Henty on 12 Oct 1961 "y who saw the play " The One» «Day» «of» «the» «Year " must have been impressed by the fact that within two generations younger men and women had developed a completely different outlook on the tradition of Anzac Day. 1 think that is the sort of thing the honorable senator had in mind in directing attention to the fact that the Army could do a great deal more in the public relations field. I wonder whether, if we had spent sufficient money and time in an imaginative way to bring home to succeeding generations the real value of what the Anzacs did and the tradition that they established for Australia, those generations would have still been of the same frame of mind."

1965 Senator Barnes "There is a faction in our community today which is trying to write down the soldier. This faction fries to lessen the standing of our returned servicemen of the two World Wars by literature, films and such plays as " The One» «Day» «of» «the» «Year ". It seeks to write down the efforts that were made by our servicemen in previous wars. These actions are part of a scheme by subversive elements in this country. But, fortunately, the Government went to the polls before Christmas on its decision to reintroduce national service. We have the approval of the Australian people for our action, and that is good enough for me. The people of Australia showed their confidence in the present Government, and the actions of the Government since then, including the introduction of these Defence Bills, show that that confidence has not been misplaced. "

1962 British TV adaptation

It was filmed by the BBC in 1962. It aired 14 Dec 1962.

Producer James Ormerod. Playwright Alan Seymour. Designer Margaret Peacock

Cast
* Reg Lye   as Wacka Dawson
* George Roubicek    as Hughie Cook
* Madge Ryan as    Dot Cook
* Georgina Ward as Jan Castle
* Kenneth J. Warren as Alf Cook

Reviewing this the Daily Mail on 15 Dec 1962

IF I were contemplating emigration to Australia, and I usually am round about Christmas, plays like last night's The One Day of the Year would make me think twice. Alan Seymour's conflict—boozy Pa and shapeless Ma versus rebellious student son—overdid the squalor to the point of farce. Bv comparison Coronation Street sounded like a smart Lonsdale comedy. Overwritten though it was. it still presented a standard Aussie writer's play. It's strange how consistently they fail to suggest the attractions of life out there. Even The Terrible Ten, a series made in Australia for children and now to be seen on ITV, is not reassuring. It suggests the fun of an outdoor life in the sunshine, and the little girls are charming. But the boy heroes are. without exception, hopeless yobs.

1963 Australian Radio Adaptation

Played Melbourne May 1963 see here and Nov 1963 see here. One review said it "bordered on the disasteful" although it had "dramatic force". See here.

1964 Canadian TV adaptation

It was shot for Canadian TV in 1964 with Neil McCallum.

Neil McCallum as Hughie

Rex Sevenoaks as Alf

Anne Collings as Jan

Adian Pecknold as Wacka