Cirrus@Austlit

'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)