'One of the giants of Australian literature and the only Australian writer to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Patrick White received less acclaim when he turned his hand to playwriting.
'In Patrick White’s Theatre, Denise Varney offers a new analysis of White’s eight published plays, discussing how they have been staged and received over a period of 60 years. From the sensational rejection of The Ham Funeral by the Adelaide Festival in 1962 to 21st-century revivals incorporating digital technology, these productions and their reception illustrate the major shifts that have taken place in Australian theatre over time. Varney unpacks White’s complex and unique theatrical imagination, the social issues that preoccupied him as a playwright, and his place in the wider Australian modernist and theatrical traditions.'
Source: Abstract.
'Patrick White’s literary reputation has been built largely on his achievements as a novelist. But the Nobel Prize winner and author of twelve novels, several collections of short stories, and a memoir wrote for the theatre throughout his life, and he began his career writing short plays. He enjoyed the theatre from a young age, when his mother took him to see plays in Sydney during the 1920s. White’s love of the theatre extended later in life to the generous patronage of several celebrated Australian actors, including Max Cullen, Kate Fitzpatrick, Robyn Nevin, and Kerry Walker. White’s friend from his London days, the actor Ronald Waters, said that White wanted to write “one great play more than all the novels”' (Introduction)
'Patrick White’s literary reputation has been built largely on his achievements as a novelist. But the Nobel Prize winner and author of twelve novels, several collections of short stories, and a memoir wrote for the theatre throughout his life, and he began his career writing short plays. He enjoyed the theatre from a young age, when his mother took him to see plays in Sydney during the 1920s. White’s love of the theatre extended later in life to the generous patronage of several celebrated Australian actors, including Max Cullen, Kate Fitzpatrick, Robyn Nevin, and Kerry Walker. White’s friend from his London days, the actor Ronald Waters, said that White wanted to write “one great play more than all the novels”' (Introduction)
