Australian TV Plays: The Rose and Crown (20 Nov 1956)

The second Australian drama to air on the ABC. This was broadcast after The Twelve Pound Look.

It was based on a play by J.B. Priestley who was highly regarded at the time. I haven't seen the play but can guess why it was put on: only a few actors, the one set, British lineage.

The ABC liked the play - they filmed it in 1963 in Perth.

Premise

The setting is the Public Bar of ‘The Rose and Crown ’, a small pub in North-East London. There are several people having an evening drink. They are fed up with life: Edward Stone, a grumpy and grumbling plumber, Bertha Reed, middle-aged, loquacious and mournful; Percy and Ivy Randle, a young middle-aged couple - he, pessimistic, she, fearful and rather wistful; and Kathleen "Ma" Peck, a bitter and disreputable old woman. The one cheery person is Harry Tully, described as ‘a healthy, jovial, matey fellow’.

(There is also a barman, Fred, who is neither seen nor heard.)

Then the Stranger arrives, a middle-aged man dressed in dark clothes. (Like Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls)

He soon reveals himself as the local representative of an organisation which selects people for death and announces that to fill his quota for that day one of those present must make up the number. He leaves it to them to decide which one is to go.

The group argue amongst themselves. The Stranger turns back the clock and shows that the group were arguing amongst themselves.

Stone and Mrs Reed attempt to leave but are prevented, painfully, by an invisible barrier in front of the door.

None of those who are frightened of life but even more frightened of death volunteers and it is left to Harry Tully, the one person who loves life and is not afraid of death, to come forward. At the end, his natural fear of the unknown disappears when he sees something or somebody coming into the bar which or whom he seems to perceive as an old friend.

The Stranger says "if Life is a Rose then Death is a crown".

Cast

* Edward Howell

* Ethel Lang as Ma Peck

* Lou Vernon

* David Butler as Harry Tully

Crew

Director - Ray Menmuir Writer - J.B. Priestley

Original play

The play was originally written for television and was performed on the BBC in 1946. It was performed a number of times. Priestly later adapted it for the stage and it was published in 1947.

A copy of it is here.

There were a number of plays during the immediate post war period about the meaning of life. According to one review of the play (not the production): This intriguing, if slightly odd and morbid, morality play with a touch of mysticism finds Priestley characteristically introducing one of his tricks of time. It remains a matter of speculation as to whether Priestley intended the play to be any sort of commentary on the state of Britain, or perhaps the British themselves, in the year after the end of the war, with Harry Tully meant to represent the cheerful-in-adversity mood of 1940 and the rest, post-war disillusionment.

Other adaptations

A version played on ABC radio in 1950.

Production

It was shot in Sydney.

Neil Hutchison, Head of Drama and Features, wrote in Nov 1956 that:

In the early days of our TV operation, our requirements will be comparatively modest. Having no proper drama production studio until the end of April, our activities will be limited to those simple productions which can adequately be handled in a small presentation studio, 20 feet by 30 feet. Elaborate hour plays, calling for several sets and much floor space, will clearly have to await the completion -of larger premises. Our first productions will be half hour plays consisting of no more than two sets and calling for no film sequences— which are commonlv used when the play’s action demands a number of out door scenes. Film inserts are shot on location well before the time of studio production and are interpolated in the live action for the first time when the show is rehearsed in the studio on the day of transmission. One of the big problems with which we are faced is the securing of TV drama scripts. Australian writers have not yet begun to think in terms of television and it may well be some time before they get the hang of what is required.

The NAA has a publicity file on it (not online) see here. Another one here.

Also according to Auntie’s Jubilee book there was another version shot around the same time directed by Will Sterling with Edward Howell in a different role that didn’t air. (see extract below.) That would've been in Sydney.

Ray Menmuir said in a NFSA interview he did this. "Dear oh dear. I mean that was in Nissan hunts and in the winter you'd cross duct boards to get to the canteen... Two cameras. Monstrous great things... But we thought we were Christmas. ". He'd studied with Rudi Bretz and Royston Morley.

Menmuir had to direct all sorts of things. "You'd stand behind the director who was directing the show before and he'd duck out and I'd duck in and start your shift as it were... You'd do everything, news and talks... I was the youngest at everything but I looked older."