Australian TV Plays: AP#1.22 - The Empty Day (12 Sept 1966)

Some Pat Flower for Australian Playhouse.

Premise

Sixteen year old Jennifer, alone in her aunt's apartment, bored. She invites a strange man inside, believing him to be, Jim, a friend of the family. She greets him in a nightie and offers him a drink.

They have too much to drink, and the man starts putting his hands all over the girl. She realises she does not want this and that the man is not Jim, but a salesman.

The Girl pays the Man to leave.

Cast

Liza Goddard as Jennifer (girl)
Stanley Walsh as the Man

Production

Written by Pat Flower. Produced and directed by John Croyston. Designer - Desmonde Downing.

It was Flower's sixth Australian Playhouse (after The Tape Recorder, The Prowler, Anonymous, Marleen). It was recorded over July 30 and 31, 1966.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald said Goddard's performance had "intensity, freshness and vigour" and said she was "ably partnered" by Stanley Walsh but thought the script did not make it "clear whether he was an alcoholic, a sex maniac or merely a stupid twerp."

The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald said "it was not Miss Flower's best effort by a long shot. In fact, its plot had enough holes to sink a battleship. The fact it didn't sink and sustained suspense was partly due to some crafty writing but mostly due to the performances in the cast."

The Canberra Times said the play was "another triumph for" Goddard which "emphasised the fact that producers have to cast her in plays of high enough standard to do her justice. In the classics Point of Departure and Antigone, this young actress was challenged by the quality of the plays. The challenge in The Empty Day was to lift a tautly-written but improbable play... into tense reality."