form y separately published work icon They Sleep at Troy single work   radio play  
Issue Details: First known date: 1939... 1939 They Sleep at Troy
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The fact that the British and the Australians at the Dardenelles in 1915 were repeating in the same theatre of war the deeds of the Greeks who beseiged Troy, as told in Homer's immortal 'Iliad,' has been noted a hundred times in modern literature. To Edmund Barclay, however, has fallen the honour of conceiving a 'fraternisation' of the ghostly heroes of old Troy with the spirits of the Anzacs who fell at Gallipoli. Mr. Barclay has written a radio-play in which the characters are a Trojan and a Grecian of some dim past B.C., and an Anzac, a Tommy, and a Turk of 1915. The wraiths of old time and of yesterday 'compare notes,' evidencing the same human nature, the same patriotic ideals, the same devotion to duty— and, perhaps the same sense of frustration.'

Source:

'Gallipoli and Old Troy', Illawarra Mercury, 21 April 1939, p.7.

Notes

  • Contemporary newspapers report that the play was written specifically for Anzac Day. (See, for example, 'Anzac Day', Huon and Derwent Times, 20 April 1939, p.2.)

Production Details

  • Broadcast on 2FC at 9:15 pm on Tuesday 25 April 1939 (Anzac Day).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 16 Dec 2014 15:12:58
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