Australian TV Plays: Shipwreck by Douglas Stewart

Play by Douglas Stewart. AustLit entry is here. Performed by Trust. Considered not good enough for ABC (see below).

Premise

A ship is wrecked on the West Australian coast. The play starts after the shipwreck, with over 300 people on an island. They include Lucretia, her husband Van Mylen, the captain Pelsart, a pastor, Sebastian, his daughter Judith and Pelsart's butler, Henyrock. The men are restless. Pelsart decides to return to Batavia, against advice, and also sends some men led by Hays to find water.

In the absence of Pelsart and Hays, some of the men, led by Cornelius, lead a revolt. They steal gold, massacre men, and keep women as sex slaves. Cornelius takes Lucretia after her husband is murdered, although he waits for a time.

A mutineer Huyssen taunts Sebastian and the pastor kills him and his killed in turn.

Hays returns and defeats the mutineers.

Pelsart returns and executes Cornelius and other mutineers. He falls dead of a heart attack before Cornelius is taken away. Hay returns to Batavia with the survivors including Lucretia.

my thoughts on the play: Lovely words. Interesting. Most of violence, massacre, etc off stage but some happens on - Sebastian kills a mutineer, and he is killed. Sexual slavery. Shakesperean in an early Shakespeare way. The review of the text in the SMH play review was fair and accurate. Sebastian is an interesting character. The women are mostly sex slaves. There is plenty going on.

Background

Written for radio in 1947. Published that year. Review is here.

Produced at the Metropolitan Theatre at St Laurence Hall, Sydney in September 1949. Review is here and here.

Then at the Little Theatre, Melbourne, 1951 . See here, here and here. The age called it "the most successful and ambitious essay in drama by an Australian".

And by the Canberra Repertory Society at the Riverside Theatre, June 1960. See here.

Produced professionally by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust, Union Theatre, Sydney, 1962. Directed by Henri Safran. .Article about that is here.

Paul O'Loughlin wrote "we have known of this play for many years and have never considered it worthy of presentation on either radio or TV. A viewing of last night's performance at the Union Theatre did nothing to change this opinion of the play. The ABC would be ill advised to touch it in its current form."

Reception

The SMH called it "an interesting play, verbally distinguished if unsatisfactorily dramatically, hopelessly soiled by a poor production." A longer review said it "provides enough incident and action to satisfy anybody" and "Stewart offers the sort of distinction in the dialogue to be expected from a poet of his gifts." He liked the characters of Sebastian and the butler. "Henri Safran's production, much too slow and deliberate, seemed to be designed at times to emphasise the faults of plays and obscure its virtues."