Australian TV Plays: The Winds of Green Monday (4 Aug 1965)

Australian play. Set in the goldfields.

Premise

In 1851, a ship's crew deserts at Sydney in order to find their fortune in the goldfields. The ship captain, McKendrick, arrives at a town in the goldfields to discover the men have formed a syndicate in order to dig for gold. He reports to the local sergeant, Tinsdale, who warns McKendrick the men are not likely to want to return and suggest increasing their wages.

A ship's apprentice, Mappin, is suffering severe PTSD from having witnessed an accident on the ship's voyage. However Mappin knows the location of the gold and the other sailors are trying to get the information out of him.

Also in the town are Martha, who was a passenger on the ship who McKendrick seems to be in love with. Martha came to Australia to be a governess but left after forming an attachment with the father of the house; how she sings at a local bar and is having an affair with Roberts, a mate on the ship who McKendrick sent out to retrieve the sailors, only to join the syndicate and start an affair with Martha. Martha realises Roberts is really only interesting in finding the location of the gold from Mappin.

A final attempt to get the information from the apprentice results in Mappin's death. The sailors offer to return to the ship but McKendrick reports then to Tinsdale for their role in Mappin's death, and he leaves with Martha.The winds of green Monday are the sounds of cicadas.

Cast

Keith Lee as Scottish captain McKendrick
Terry Norris as Mate Roberts
Jennifer Wright as music hall singer Martha
Martin Magee as the young apprentice Mappin
George Whaley as Welshman Jones
Stanley Walsh as a cockney seaman
Roly Barie
Nevil Thurgood
Tony McGrath

Production

Michael Noonan wrote it. Noonan told Albert Moran in an oral history that it and his other Australian TV play The Music Upstairs were commissioned by Philip Mann. I wonder if Mann worked with Noonan in England. It was later filmed by British TV.

Noonan says the idea was based on an incident that happened to his great grandfather when the crew deserted the script.

It was one of 20 TV plays produced by the ABC in 1964 (and one of only three Australian scripts). Why was it not seen until 1965 though?

It was filmed in Melbourne. Oscar Whitbread directed.

Jennifer Wright and Stanley Walsh had just arrived in Australia from England and made their Australian TV debuts in this.

Thoughts on the script - (copy at Michael Noonan papers at UQ) - great idea, good drama, interesting characters: solid, driven McKendrick, spirited Martha (who is a bit madonna-whore), enigmatic Roberts. Noonan puts in a lot of big print, that was difficult for me to adjust to. But a good play.

A TV guide lists this at 40 minutes but the script reads longer than that.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald praised the performances of Lee and Wright as "professional" but complained about the "stiffness of the dialogue" and said "the direction of the crowds with their rhubarb-rhubarb voices and their tinned and infuriatingly phony laughter drove us for solace across the dial."

1965 British TV Version

The play was adapted for British TV in Sept 1965 on ITV starring Chips Rafferty. John Frankau directed. Antony Keary produced. The cast was:

* Delphi Lawrence as Martha Nugent

Joseph O'Conor as Capt. McKendrick
Chips Rafferty as Sgt Tinsdale
Donal Donnelly as Seaman Tyrrell
Jimmy Gardner as Seaman Dodds
Richard Gatehouse as Seaman Tregowarth
Brian Haines as Digger Barry
Morris Perry as Seaman Simmons
David Saire as Apprentice Mappin
Julian Somers as Bosun Brien
Kevin Stoney as Capt. Svenson
Gary Watson as Shipmate Roberts
Arthur White as Seaman Watkins

Chips Rafferty didn't appear in an Australian TV play but he did turn up in a British one. Tinsdale is a support part though. The Daily Telegraph said "the drama was rather oddly lacking in action."