image of person or book cover 7791998106913834891.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Once in Royal David’s City single work   drama   - 1 hour, 40 minutes
Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 Once in Royal David’s City
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Eloquent, playful, big-thinking, tender and fierce – Michael Gow’s new play is an astonishing act of theatrical invention.

'Will Drummond is bewildered. All the old certainties are coming apart. When he finds himself sitting by his mother’s bedside in a hospital room on the north coast of New South Wales, suddenly he’s faced with the mortality of loved ones, faced with the state of the world as it was and as it is right now. Set adrift, Will considers loss and what’s left, class and contradiction, and navigating a corporatised and globalised world alone.

'Once in Royal David’s City is big and small at once, tumbling from the fifties to the present, from East Berlin to Byron Bay, from brief encounters to the cycles of history. It’s about death and Christmas and class warfare and what to teach school children about politics and art. It’s about the old working class and the new middle class and what one has to learn from each other.

'It is beautiful.'' (Source: Belvoir website)

Production Details

  • Performed at the Belvoir Upstairs Theatre 8 February - 23 March 2014.

    Director: Eamon Flack.

    Set & Lighting Designer: Nick Schlieper.

    Costume Designer: Mel Page.

    Composer: Alan John.

    Sound Supervisor: Michael Toisuta.

    Stage Manager: Luke McGettigan.

    Assistant Stage Manager: Keiren Smith.

    Assistant to the Set Designer: Georgia Hopkins.

    Stage Management Secondment: Michelle Sverdloff-Bruer.

    Costume Secondment: Hannah Koch.

    Cast: Helen Buday, Brendan Cowell, Maggie Dence, Harry Greenwood, Lech Mackiewicz, Tara Morice, Helen Morse, and Anthony Phelan.


    Co-produced by Queensland Theatre Company and Black Swan Theatre Company for the 2017 season.

    Played the Heath Ledger Theatre (Black Swan Theatre Company), 25 March to 9 April 2017.

    Played the Playhouse, QPAC (Queensland Theatre Company), 22 April to 14 May 2017.

    Director: Sam Strong.

    Cast: Adam Booth, Jason Klarwein, Toni Scanlan, and Steve Turner.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 2014
    • Strawberry Hills, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 7791998106913834891.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 41 [28 unnumbered pages]p.
      Description: still images
      ISBN: 9781925005042 (paperback)
      Series: Current Theatre Series Currency Press (publisher), 1983- series - publisher 'Current Theatre Series consists of Australian plays published with the program inserted and sold during theatre seasons. The aim of the series is to promote and encourage new dramatic writing and make it accessible to theatregoers and the public. The text is presented at the first day of rehearsal and does not contain changes which the author may choose to make after the play has commenced its present season - these will be incorporated into any new edition published by Currency.' Currency Press.

Works about this Work

(Review Essay) Once in Royal David’s City Ian Dickson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 359 2014;

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama

'At a time when a convicted drug smuggler is rumoured to be about to collect a fortune for her remarkably unremarkable story and when we are heading into a new round of so-called ‘culture wars’, in which an extraordinary amount of heat will be generated with precious little light accompanying it, it is refreshing to be presented with another of Michael Gow’s forensic explorations of the world in which we stumble around. From that explosion of fury, pain, and Wagner, The Kid (1983) onwards, Gow has observed society with a ruthless but compassionate eye. Anger and grief are the dominant emotions that fuel his work, and they are very much in evidence in his latest play, Once in Royal David’s City.' (Introduction)

[Untitled] Elissa Blake , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 23 February 2014; (p. 11)

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama
The Ultimate Challence : How to Understand the Death of a Loved One John McCallum , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 20 February 2014; (p. 13)

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama
City Built of Brecht is a Piercing Call to Arms Jason Blake , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14 February 2014; (p. 20)

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama
An Angry Parade of Big Ideas Elissa Blake , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12 February 2014; (p. 13)

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama
An Angry Parade of Big Ideas Elissa Blake , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12 February 2014; (p. 13)

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama
City Built of Brecht is a Piercing Call to Arms Jason Blake , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14 February 2014; (p. 20)

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama
The Ultimate Challence : How to Understand the Death of a Loved One John McCallum , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 20 February 2014; (p. 13)

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama
[Untitled] Elissa Blake , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 23 February 2014; (p. 11)

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama
(Review Essay) Once in Royal David’s City Ian Dickson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 359 2014;

— Review of Once in Royal David’s City Michael Gow , 2014 single work drama

'At a time when a convicted drug smuggler is rumoured to be about to collect a fortune for her remarkably unremarkable story and when we are heading into a new round of so-called ‘culture wars’, in which an extraordinary amount of heat will be generated with precious little light accompanying it, it is refreshing to be presented with another of Michael Gow’s forensic explorations of the world in which we stumble around. From that explosion of fury, pain, and Wagner, The Kid (1983) onwards, Gow has observed society with a ruthless but compassionate eye. Anger and grief are the dominant emotions that fuel his work, and they are very much in evidence in his latest play, Once in Royal David’s City.' (Introduction)

True North Michaela Boland , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 8-9 February 2014; (p. 6)
Last amended 22 Nov 2018 14:10:36
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