Australian TV Plays: AP#1.2 - Voyage Out (5 Nov 1969)

Premise

A woman, Kathy, decides to reject a series of fleeting physical encounters and believes she has found her ideal mate in Robert, a poet who is as a little person.

Robert cannot believe he has the power to hold her and they both strive to convince themselves and everyone else that they are happy.

Robert commits suicide.

Cast

Pat Bishop as Kathy Harper
Ray Hartley as Robert Harper
Alistair Duncan as Eddy
Margo Lee as Tessa
Jeff Kevin as Peter
Don Crosby as Jack

Production

It was written and directed by John Croyston.

Croyston talked about it with Graham Shirley in a 2004 oral history. Shirley worked on the production as a staging assistant.

It was based on poet Lex Banning whose ADB entry is here. Lex who had cerebral palsy was a poet; he had been a close friend of Croyston who was a poet himself. Croyston said Banning had struggled to maintain a relationship. He said Banning's wife called him after the show went to air to thank Croyston because she recognised its inspiration.

Radio National did a piece on Banning see here.

Croyston wrote the piece about a poet who was short to accommodate Ray Hartley. Croyston said the play "did exploit Ray Hartley". Hartley was a short actor whose voice never broke - he often played children. His obit from 1999 is here.

Reception

The Canberra Times thought Croyston's "sympathetic direction saved the play and gave it something it otherwise lacked. On the other hand perhaps a director without the bond of authorship could have been more ruthless and speeded it up. The story was unsubtle, rather melodramatic. It did have some surprisingly perceptive and original moments, however, such as when Kathy discovers Robert with his head in the gas oven and in her shock begins to beat his dead body calling him a "revolting little man". Food for thought: had she always hated him? The most important thing is that the plays are being televised. If they are not BBC standard at least they are getting an airing."

This review prompted a viewer to write in and bag the play.

Reviewing the year in Australian TV, The Age said the six plays of Australian Plays were "more dull than bad with the exception of A Voyage Out notable for the TV debut of the diminutive Ray Hartley who played child parts in radio series."

The Stage said it "told of a poet who had problems as a writer, mainly stemming from an insecurity complex developed over his lack of physical stature, terminating in his suicide. It started very well, with crisp dialogue, but gradually deteriorated. Dialogue, acting, direction and photography were excellent, but plot interest simply was not sustained. Exactly right in the leads were Ray Hartley and Pat Bishop as the poet and his wife, the former in fact would be an ideal choice for the lead in any film or play about Wee Georgie Wood. "