Australian TV Plays: Quiet Night (28 June 1961)

Part of the ABC's brief (as it turned out) Dorothy Blewett enthusiasm. This and The First Joanna were broadcast in 1961.

ABV's 48th live play apparently.

Plot

Playboy Russell Keane crashes his sports car and is taken to the Memorial Wing of St Andrews' Hospital in Melbourne. Nurse Sinclair takes the call that there is an accident. Sister Murphy and Nurse Sparrow are also working on duty. Nurse Sinclair has five days to complete her training.

Russell Keane drinks some whiskey and needs to be operated on. His blood group is rare and Nurse Sinclair offers up her own blood. Dr Macready is romantically involved with Nurse Sparrow. Dr Clayton is a patient. Russell Keane's parents arrive.

Cast

Paul Karo as Russell Keane
Mary Disney as Nurse Sinclair
Mary Mackay as Sister Murphy
Elizabeth Goodman as Sister Rankin
Fay Kelton as Nurse Sparrow
Nancy Cato as Nurse Curtain
Sonia Borg as Nurse Teuber, a junior nurse
Mark Kelly as Doctor Macready
Elizabeth Wing as Leila Clayton
Michael Duffield as Doctor Clayton
Natalie Raine as Matron
Betty Eames as Mrs Keane
Charles Sinclaire as Mr Keane
Graham Hughes as the farmer
Ken Goodlet
Norman Brown
Lindell Rowe
Agnes Dobson
Leon Liseek

Original play

The play was first performed in 1941. The Argus said it displayed "ambition that does not fall far short of achievement."

AustLit did a magnificent appreciation of Blewett including a full transcript of the play which is here.

My thoughts on the play. I read it - it's not a bad play. Perhaps too many characters for them to be serviced sufficiently. Some decent melodrama, like doctor-nurse romance and a patient going crazy. This would have made an ideal basis for a TV show, something focusing on the nurses, like All Saints. There was a medical drama made in Australia in 1959, which was reasonably popular but which ended prematurely due to the loss of a sponsor.

The play seems to have been quite popular amongst amateur societies in the 1940s. It had lots of roles, especially female roles, and they were in positions of authority. Such things were not common for women in theatre at the time.

It was published in 1944.

In 1953 it was listed among the many Australian plays pushed by the Playwrights Advisory Board.

Other adaptations

The play was adapted for radio by the BBC in 1952. Many of the cast were Australians eg Thelma Scott.

This production aired on the ABC.

Production

The program was mostly filmed at ABC's studios in Melbourne, apart from the crash sequence which was shot on a road outside the city.

There was a cast of nineteen.

Kevin Bartlett did the sets .

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald said the show "proved that Australian productions can at times far outpace the imported variety... the play's principal charm lay in its warm and authentic hospital background."

Frank Thring of TV Week disliked it.