An English play but one with a very Australian connection: the first play performed in Australia.
It was the first episode of Wednesday Theatre in Sydney.
Premise
Two recruiting officers, Plume and Brazen, visit a country district and become involved with Plume's childhood friend, Worthy, and two beautiful women, Sylvia and Melinda.
Cast
- John Meillon as Plume
- Anna Volska as Sylvia
- Tony Ward as Squire Worthy
- Noeline Brown as Melinda
- Reginald Livermore as Brazen
- Yvonne Matthews as Lucy
- Edward Hepple as Sergeant Kite
- Ronald Morse as a Judge Ballance
- Arelen Dorgan as Rose
- Thomas Dysart as Bullock
- Stuart Finch as Thomas
- Don Pascoe as Costar
- John Armstrong as Constable
- Robert McDarra as Scruple
- Phillip West as Smith
- Shendelle Franklin as wife
- Mark Edwards as Steward
- Edmund Pegge, Tina Date, John Hopkins, Victoria Anoux, Tex Clarke, Tessa Mallos
Original play
The play was first performed in 1706. The play was based on Farqhuar's experience recruiting in Shrophsire during the War of Spanish Succession.
Here's a link to a copy of the play.
Australian connection
The original play was first play to be staged in the Colony of New South Wales, which is now Australia, by the convicts of the First Fleet on 4 June, 1789 under the governance of Captain Arthur Phillip. It was performed to honour the king's birthday. The details of that performance are here.
Thomas Keneally wrote a novel, The Playmaker, based on a staging of the play by the First Fleet. That novel was adapted into a play, Our Country’s Good, in 1988, by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Bruce Beresford tried to get up a movie based on this play for a time.
Production
The play had recently been revived in the public consciousness after being performed at the National Theatre in London in 1963.
In 1964, when the play was shot, it was compared to the movie Tom Jones (1963).
John Meillon made it after returning home after five years in London, "I would think this play was the best ever produced in Australia", said Meillon. "It would stand on its merits anywhere."
It was one of the most elaborate productions shot on Australian TV until that time. It was filmed in 1964 but screening was delayed until after a Senate election because of the title, and conscription had been an issue in the election.
Sets and costumes were designed by Wendy Dickson of the Elizabethan Theatre Trust.
Two studios were used. The sets involved building a complete market place, containing a courthouse, inn and stocks. More than 30 costumes were made.
Reg Livermore wrote in his memoirs that rehearsals took place in premises in Lower Forbes St, near Kings Cross. He says whenever Meillion had a break in dialogue he would leave to visit the pub, but "he always returned in time". Livermore says Meillon's performance "was lively, nonetheless, as was he, a jovial, likable chum."
Richard Connolly did the music. Fred Haynes was the technical producer and Wendy Dixon did the design.
I spoke with Noeline Brown about the production.
I got the role through the usual audition process. I read for it. I was very happy to be cast as Melinda, a lady of fortune. I don’t believe I was up for the role played by Anna Volska. However I used to say I would have been happy to play it, as she got to cross-dress and I look pretty good with a moustache.
Director Ken Hannam was a charming bloke. A delightful person and a very good person to work with. A very good director. It was a fun thing to do I remember this one in particular as being one of the highlights of my young life. I’d only been a professional performer for a couple of years. It was a big feather in my cap to get the offer I knew all the stuff about it being the first play performed in Australia
I was very fond of classical theatre. That drew me to this one to work in that stylised manner. The whole show was not stylised in terms of the acting. It was a bit schizophrenic in that way. Some playing in it it naturalistic like Meillon. (With Meillon you got Meillon - he did what he wanted to do.) Tony Ward played it as if reading the news. It was all a bit strange. Reg Livermore was a bit classic and I was trying to do the same. Anna Volska came from NIDA so she was classically trained. I remember during rehearsals for a show the director would normally say something like “we want it all to be played naturally” - that was never said at rehearsal for this.
[I told her about Reg Livermore’s story of John Meillon’s tendency to duck out during rehearsal to the pub.] That was a very Australian actor radio thing to do - to duck out to the pub, somewhere like the Shakespeare Hotel, down a couple of schooners and go back to work, they’d do that all day. I tried that once or twice but it was too much for me. I stuck to lemon lime and bitters.
It was shot at Gore Hill. They had two whole studios. A really expensive production. Be almost the entire ABC set up. They had a complete market place with stocks and everything set up.
I was in my bedroom - I had a wonderful bedroom set - it had curtains and things hanging from the bed. Wonderful sets and costumes from Elizabethan Theatre Trust. I don’t think I’ve had any better. But it went to air in black and white so you could’t see the lovely colours.
It’s a delightful play and it was great fun to be in it. With television you don’t really have an opportunity to enjoy yourself - you’re hanging around and you’re on. It’s panic stricken. But that show I remember being glorious. It was shot as if it was in one take, that’s my memory of it, but I’m not sure that’s right because we had a lot of costume changes.
We shot it in 1964 and played it in 1965 because there was an election for the senate and the government wanted to hold off.
Reception
The Sydney Morning Herald said "The happy turns and twists of its plot and its unrestrained, exuberant dialogue were skillfully brought within the television frame, enabling the notably able cast to show off a variety of nimble expressions" adding "This was a good-tempered and affable production" with "some delightful acting and resourceful use of visual details."
The Canberra Times said Meillon made "a display of naturalistic acting of such excellence that there was excitement in the sheer realism of his gesture and inflection. But the 100 minute production left an after taste of such dissatisfaction that the inevitable first question was, do I want naturalistic acting in Restoration comedy?"
The Sydney Tribune said it was the "highlight of the week".
The Age called it a "lively production".
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| SMH TV Guide 4 Jan 1965 |
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| The Age TV Guide 14 Jan 1965 p 1 |
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| The Age TV Guide 14 Jan 1965 p 1 |
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| Canberra Times 4 Jan 1965 p 14 |
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| Canberra Times 8 Jan 1965 p 10 |
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| SMH TV Guide 28 Dec 1964 p 4 |
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| Tribune 13 Jan 1965 p 10 |
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| SMH 7 Jna 1965 p 9 |
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| Canberra Times 4 Jan 1965 p 13 |
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| Canberra Times 4 Jan 1965 p 13 |
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| Canberra Times 4 Jan 1965 p 13 |
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| AWW 23 Dec 1964 p 64 |
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| The Age 16 Jan 1965 p 7 |
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| SMH 6 Jan 1965 p 4 |
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| TV Times 6Jan 1965 |
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Forgotten Australian TV Plays: The Recruiting Officer
by Stephen Vagg
May 16, 2021
In his series on little remembered Australian TV plays, Stephen Vagg looks at the ABC’s 1965 adaptation of the first European play performed in this country, The Recruiting Officer.
One of the coolest things about Australian TV plays – that’s right, I went there, I called them “cool” – is that they were often adapted from classic (or at least noteworthy) Australian plays. In the 1950s and 1960s, commonly assumed to be a dud period in Australia theatre, there were TV versions of Rusty Bugles, Slaughter of St Teresa’s Day, The Shifting Heart, The Torrents, Burst of Summer, Lady in Danger, The One Day of the Year, Swamp Creatures, Hunger of a Girl, The Square Ring, Night of the Ding Dong, The Tower, Lola Montez, Ned Kelly and The Multi Coloured Umbrella, among others. (No Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, though – I assume because of cost/rights.)
There was also The Recruiting Officer. It wasn’t an Australian play – it was first produced in 1706, and was written by Irishman George Farquhar – but has a strong Australian link because it was the first theatrical European play staged in this country. The occasion was on 4 June 1789, the birthday of King George III, a performance dramatised by Thomas Keneally in his novel The Playmaker, which in turn was adapted into the play Our Country’s Good.
The Recruiting Officer has drifted in and out of fashion over the years, but was always regarded as a classic Restoration comedy. (Contrast this with another foreign play that had strong Australian links: Struck Oil, a hoary old melodrama that was hugely popular in Australia, forming the basis of JC Williamson’s fortune, but is rarely revived). The Recruiting Officer came back into public consciousness in 1963 England via a brand spanking production at the National Theatre in London… which in turn may have been prompted by the blockbuster success of the feature film Tom Jones (1963), a bawdy comedy in the restoration comedy tradition. This, in turn, reminded the ABC of our theatre heritage, so they arranged for The Recruiting Officer to be filmed for TV at their Gore Hill Studios in 1964.
Aunty laid on the trappings for this one – it had a large budget, impressive sets, and a well-known lead in John Meillon, returning to Australia after five years in London. He was supported by a strong cast of emerging talents, many of whom would become famous in the next few years: Reg Livermore, Noeline Brown, Anna Volska, Tony (Hunter) Ward. The director was Ken (Sunday Too Far Away) Hannam.
The plot of The Recruiting Officer concerns Captain Plume (John Meillon), who arrives in Shrewbusry with Sgt Kite (Edward Hepple) seeking recruits for the army. Plume is also determined to seduce, but not marry, a local woman, Sylvia (Anna Volska), while Plume’s childhood friend Squire Worthy (Tony Ward) is in love with Sylvia’s cousin, Melinda (Noeline Brown). Worthy has offended Melinda by not wanting to marry her until she came into wealth, so she allows another recruiter, Brazen (Reg Livermore), to court her. After Sylvia’s brother dies, she becomes her father’s (Ronald Morse) heir and he tells her she must give up Plume. She dresses up as a man, “Jack Wilful”, and goes to Shrewsbury. There’s further shenanigans with Brazen and Plume both trying to recruit “Jack,” a wench named Rose (Arlene Dorgan) falsely accusing “Jack” of sexual assault, Melinda’s maid Lucy (Yvonne Matthews), dueling, and lots more, but all ends happily. I admit I had to google the plot to fully follow it, but then I have to do that with Shakespeare as well.
“The whole show was not stylised in terms of the acting,” remembered Noeline Brown when I spoke with her last year. “It was a bit schizophrenic in that way. Some playing in it was naturalistic like Meillon. (With Meillon you got Meillon – he did what he wanted to do.) Tony Ward played it as if reading the news. It was all a bit strange. Reg Livermore was a bit classic, and I was trying to do the same. Anna Volska came from NIDA, so she was classically trained. I remember during rehearsals for a show the director would normally say something like ‘I want it all to be played naturally’… that was never said at rehearsal for this.”
However, Ms Brown had a wonderful experience on The Recruiting Officer. “It’s a delightful play and it was great fun to be in it. With television, you don’t really have an opportunity to enjoy yourself – you’re hanging around and you’re on. It’s panic stricken. But that show I remember being glorious. It was shot as if it was in one take, that’s my memory of it, but I’m not sure that’s right because we had a lot of costume changes.”
I recently saw a copy of the production and it was a lot of fun. The actors are clearly having a grand old time, the sets are a delight (I wish it had been in colour). Particularly strong are Meillon, Livermore, Brown and Volska. The latter is one of the country’s best known theatre actors, theatrical royalty as they say, but not particularly well known for her television work; she’s got a great part here, as the cross-dressing Sylvia (a sort of spiritual heir to Viola in Twelfth Night) and makes the most of it. So too does the husky-voiced Brown (lounging in bed with her pet poodle, plotting mischief), the boisterously playful Reg Livermore and the swaggeringly charming John Meillon. Tony Ward and Edward Hepple are less fun, but their stolidness plays off nicely against the others. Director Ken Hannam does a very good job here; Bruce Beresford wrote in his diaries that Hannam was a bit of a pants man in real life, and it’s quite a sexy production.
The broadcast of The Recruiting Officer was delayed until early 1965 because of an odd reason: there was a Senate election in December 1964, conscription was going to be an election issue, and the ABC didn’t want to be seen as causing trouble. The production received more than the usual amount of publicity for an Australian TV play, including a splashy couple of pages in The Australian Women’s Weekly, which showed off the gorgeous colours of the sets and costumes.
This TV play was based on famous source material with an important link to our cultural past, was full of known actors and was entertaining… The Recruiting Officer should have been a perennial, re-run constantly on the ABC in the way they did with James Robertson Justice films, shown in theatre history classes. It should definitely be easier to access than it currently is, because it’s one of the best pieces of television made by Australia in the 1960s. You did good, Aunty. Flaunt it!
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