y separately published work icon Troth to Toll single work   drama   - One act
Issue Details: First known date: 1959... 1959 Troth to Toll
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Mayne Textiles has a new business manager who borrows money from everyone in the firm, flirts with the switch girl, "improves" the office, and eventually marries the boss's daughter. His co-workers do not approve.

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Time and the Bell Helen Haenke , 1960-1969 (Manuscript version)14724639 14724464 1955 single work radio play

Mayne Textiles has a new business manager who borrows money from everyone in the firm, flirts with the switch girl, "improves" the office, and eventually marries the boss's daughter. His co-workers do not approve.

Notes

  • Characters

    Agnes Tarrant: middle-aged, private secretary, hon. secretary of a women's organisation.

    Honey: 18-22, switch-girl, receptionist.

    Rick Sinclair: the new business manager.

     Rosalie Mayne: 19, daughter of Mr Mayne of Mayne Textiles pty. ltd. 

    Junior office girl.

    Electrician.

    The president of a women's organisation.

    The hon. treasurer of a women's organisation.

    Agnes should always wear the same dress - neat black with white collar, but adds a frilly collar and notable hat for Scenes 1, 3. Honey wears a uniform skirt and blouse, but achieves differences as indicated in script, to add to the sense of passage of time. Junior office Girl should wear the same skirt and blouse as Honey.

    Set

    Scene 1: Before the curtain. The Presidential table before the Conference of the Women's Freedom Society Conference. (Suggesting the audience as the body of the Conference.)

    Scene 2: A series of flashabacks. The office of Mayne Textiles Pty. Ltd.

    Scene 3: As Scene 1.

  • Entered in Ipswich Little Theatre Centenary Competition, 1959. Tied first place with Marian Dreyer, Sydney.

  • Notes on the floor plan for Scene 2:

    The clock and calendar are very important in this scene, and should be large enough to be seen to back of hall, even when the new smaller clock is introduced. The calendar in use at first could be a cumbersome arrangement of painted boards to hand on cup-hooks; the new one might be large cards fitting into a box on wall - as used by the Commonwealth Bank.

    The office should be vaguely old-fashioned, efficiency is due to Agnes' discipline rather than automation.

    The switch is purposely partly obscured by Honey's desk. Honey should remember to use it during moments when she is not involved in action of the play.

    (Note - don't use a striking or chiming clock.)

Production Details

  • Presented by Ipswich Little Theatre Society. Performed at Ipswich Civic Hall, Ipswich: 14 July 1960.

    Director: Billie Bailey

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1959
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Helen Haenke Collection Helen Haenke , 1955-1989 14265233 1955 archive

    The University of Queensland's Fryer Library holds a substantial collection of Helen Haenke's literary works. The collection includes plays, short stories, novels, poems, and prose, all in manuscript form. Several of these works were published, but only the manuscript and electronic text versions are included in the collection. 

    1955-1989
      1959 .
      Alternative title: Time and the Bell
      Extent: 26l.p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The Helen Haenke Collection at the University of Queensland's Fryer Library holds one copy of 'Time and the Bell' stage play. On the front page of the manuscript a typed note in brackets reads 'Title changed from "Troth to Toll"'. The scene descriptions are exactly the same as 'Troth to Toll', and the character list and descriptions are also the same with the exception of the 'Junior Office Girl' who has been removed. On the front page of the script, under the scene descriptions, there is a quote from T.S Eliot hand written in ink: 'Time and the bell have buried the day/The dark cloud hides the sun away.' Below that, also hand written is a note that reads, 'Please return to: Mrs H. Haenke, "Rockton", East Ipswich.'

        The character Rosalie has been underlined at every indicator of her speech—as though the script was used by someone who was playing the part of Rosalie.

        The play itself is almost exactly the same as the original, with some minor alterations and embellishments to characters' speech.

      1959 .
      Extent: 21l.p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The Helen Haenke Collection at the University of Queensland's Fryer Library holds one copy of 'Troth to Toll'. The script has been typed with a typewriter onto pale brown paper. Underneath the title it reads 'One Act Play - in Three Scenes by "Inglewick"', presumably a pseudonym for the author.

Last amended 4 Apr 2019 16:06:05
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