Australian TV Plays: SP#13 - Man in a Blue Vase (5 March 1960)

The last ep of Shell Presents. Written by Richard Benyon. Unlike most of the Shell Presents presentations, it wasn't aired live. Although produced in Melbourne, it aired in Sydney first.

Plot

Set in a Polish-Jewish household in Melbourne. Jewish Aaron is married to non-Jewish Shirley. They are working to buy their own home.

Aaron, feeling trapped, tries to prove his individuality by taking housekeeping money from his wife Shirley's blue vase. The wife seeks advice and consolation from her mother in law.

Sister in law Esther tells Shirley that marriage is a state of war and she needs to take a stand.

Aaron goes drinking and asks his brother in law Herman why he lets Esther bully him.

Shirley gets advice from her mother in law, Reba.

Cast

Alan Hopgood as Aaron
Coralie Neville as Shirley
Sue Saffir as Esther
John Bluthal as Herman
Rachel Holzer as Reba
Edward Howell as Uncle Ben
Don Crosby as a barman
Joe Hudson as Taxi Driver

Production

The script was written by Richard Beynon (1925–99), author of the play The Shifting Heart.

It was shot in Melbourne.

Reception

The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald said the play was "refreshing for its observation that there don't have to be lurid triangles or melodramatic boozing or homesacrificing career obsessions to put marriages on the rocks" but still lacks something of the warmth by which a Chayefsky allows his commonplace characters to arouse deeply compassionate interest in their everyday conflict, collaboration and compromise. Beynon's people... are carefully observed and their talk runs pretty naturally, but some want of rich detail in the writing and among... [the]players prevented them from making a compelling appeal."

The Age wrote that "the story wasn't 'big' enough to carry an hour of television. Otherwise the drama is quite good. The cast performed well.

Other Adaptations

The play was adapted for radio in 1960 by the ABC. It played in 1961, 1963, 1966, and 1969.