Australian TV Plays: The First Joanna (22 Feb 1961)

Adaptation of a 1943 Australian play by Dorothy Blewett. That year they also did Quiet Night from her. 75 mins.

Plot

Joanna is a sophisticated Englishwoman whose husband Stephen Deveron owns a vineyard in South Australia. Joanna was caught up in Europe during World War Two and sent to a German concentration camp; she and her husband were separated for six years.

When she arrives at the vineyard she finds country life dull and decides to leave her husband and return to England. Joanna misses her old life before the war and feels Stephen has changed, though she still loves him. Joanna has a secret from her time away, Halley urges her to tell it but she won't.

Two eccentric 92 year old Deveron aunts, Viola and Editha, give Joanna a tapestry chair that belonged to the first Joanna, Stephen's great grandmother (who died when Stephen was born). Hidden in the chair are two diaries containing a detailed record of the lives of the first Joanna and her husband Stephen.

We flash back to 1837 in a Tasmanian colonial house. Joanna is a serving maid. Stephen is going to set up a vineyard in the new colony of South Australia. Joanna is regularly whipped by her bosses and plans to kill herself. Stephen suggests she escape and come with him and Joanna agrees.

In 1849 the two are together (though not married) and living in the house with their children. Stephen has returned from London to visit his father who died. While he was gone their son died. Stephen also has information about Joanna's biological parents (she was adopted out to her father's cousin, who Joanna tried to shoot dead for unspecified reasons - that's why she was transported). (There is a lot of backstory in this play.)

In 1862 Stephen is an MP, and their two children Augusta and Philip are grown; Augusta is engaged to another vineyard owner, Ernest. A bushranger, Sullivan, is loose in the district. Soldiers come to find him including Sullivan, who knew Joanna in Tasmania. Stephen suspects Smith of assisting Sullivan. Smith recognises Joanna. Smith blackmails Joanna, threatening to reveal what he knows about her past. Smith paws Joanna and she shoots him dead. She reveals she shot her adoptive father after he came at her in bed (so much backstory). Stephen and Joanna decide to arrange it so Smiths' death looks like an accident.

In 1871 Viola and Edith are young women. Edithua humps off a cliff.

In 1888 Stephen and Joanna are still haunted by the death of Smith. Stephen dies, very old, in the chair. Joanna goes on to live for thirty more years.

In the present day, second Joanna tells the family about the first Joanna's secrets. Then she reveals her own - after the surrender, her "hair was shaved" because she had been trying to help her father, who died. Joanna slept with a German who was killed by the Russians. Stephen forgives Joanna for this. This encourages Joanna to stay.

Cast - modern era

Lee Norton as the second Joanna
Norman Kaye as Stephen Deveron
Madeline Howell as Jocelyn, a woman Joanna's age
Kevin Miles as Halley van Drutten, an American military officer, who is romancing Jocelyn; an old friend of Joanna who rescued her from Europe
Barbara Brandon as Editha
Lorna Forbes as Viola
Olive Verdon as Mrs Collins, a maid of Stephen's
Stewart Weller as Jackson, chauffeur for the aunts

Cast - colonial era

Pat Connolly as the first Joanna
Norman Kaye as Stephen Deveron
Peter LaTrobe as Captain Jules Smith, a gross colonial
William Lloyd as Sir Bertram Tavener
Natalie Raine as Lady Caroline Tavener
Laura James as Beatrice Tavener
Fay Kelton as Augusta
George Whaley as a soldier
Rohonda Nunquam as Editha
Diana Sinnamon as Viola
Roland Heimans as Phillip

Original play

Dorothy Blewett said she wanted to produce a play of character and ideas, illustrating the value of a family tradition but emphasising the dangers that arrive if that tradition is misunderstood or misapplied. "So many Australians are proud of the wrong things in their heritage," said Blewett. "We should face up to the truth of our beginnings and be grateful to the adventurous spirits who fought hard and subdued our hard country in the early days."

The play won a competition in 1947 but it appears to have been first performed in 1943. The award was given by the Playwrights Advisory Board. Head of this was Leslie Rees who said"The First Joanna" was a play of professional competence that could be given on any stage. Some other plays had notable literary quality or-excellent, base material, but in the view of the judges were 'crude ore' from a playpoint of view,"

AustLit published several editions of the play. They did an outstanding job. See here.

Other adaptations

The play was adapted for radio in 1948 at the ABC. The production starred English actor Jane Barrett, who was in Australia to star in Eureka Stockade.

The play was performed at May Hollinworth's Metropolitan Theatre in 1948. The Sydney Morning Herald said that "The theme is the shattering of a myth built round the origins of respectable family. The skeletons of murder and illegitimacy are discovered in the cupboard byn a spirited young bride from Europe, who. shocks her conventional husband and his relatives by the revelation. The play is too tense and supercharged in the first act, and not charged enough in the third, and it could do with a more liberal sprinkling of the humour which, .when she cares, the author knows how to command. Miss Blewitt has something important to say about Australian traditions and fantasies, and about the deceptions and loyalties of the human heart, and for much of the time there are strength and charm in her unfolding of a family chronicle which with some revision could measure up to the standards of the competitive professional theatre."

Production

The play was shot at the Melbourne ABC TV studios at Ripponlea with some additional location filming for a vineyard scene with Norman Kaye done at Chateau Tahbilk.

Author Dorothy Blewett, who lived in Melbourne, attended many rehearsals.

Chris Muir worked in Melbourne. Prior to production he watched Little Theatre productions. He was trying to cast actors who were less familiar to audiences.

This resulted in Norman Kaye and Peter Latrobe being cast. Norman Kaye and Lee Norton made their Australian TV debuts.

Wal Cherry did the adaptation. It ran for 75 minutes. There was a bit to get through.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald critic wrote that the ABC "did their best... the production was a success, to the extent of making much of little; for the play itself otften slips out of its intended dramatic mould into something approaching melodrama... Patricia Connolly was very sweet and convincing, Lee Norton was a trifle brittle... Muir was well served by rich and spacious sets."