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Researched and compiled by Charlemagne Gardner.
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The First Joanna was written in 1941 by Dorothy Blewett, an award-winning playwright born in 1898. The play tells the story of Joanna Deveron who has escaped the horrors of the Second World War to join her husband, Stephen, at his family vineyard, an environment she believes unsuitable for herself and her recovery. Joanna first intends to leave but upon discovering the diaries of Stephen’s grandmother, originally Joanna Millay, she finds she wishes to remain. The history in this work underpins the values of modern day Australians and continue to shape our lives today. The play demonstrates its contemporary relevance in the themes and issues still integral to Australian society such as the exploration of rural life, revisionist history and sexual violence. These elements are particularly applicable to Australian audiences and assist in promoting cross-generational understanding.
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The beginning of Blewett’s play engages an Australian audience by opening on a setting iconic to the Australian mythos: the homestead. This setting is defined just as much by the landscape as by the family that has lived there for generations. It is a location which Joanna’s childhood friend, Hally Van Druyten, states has '“something feudal about this set-up' (Blewett 13). This patriarchal, feudalistic organisational structure is something that the first Joanna is well aware of as she states Stephen '“is the head of the house' (Blewett 57). In modern society, as Jedi Geggie states '…mothers still take on most of the responsibilities for home making and nurturing the children…' (Geggie et al 225). This is a family structure well embedded in the western psyche.
Another interesting thing of note in this family defined landscape is the focus on growth as Joanna says 'I prefer a community that tills the earth to one that mines it' (Blewett 66). Stephen also demonstrates this by referencing their 'children’s legacy'. This legacy is something which is gifted to Joanna upon discovering and reading the first Joanna’s diaries. This discovery allows for the exploration of generational similarities. The First Joanna stands as a part of Australia dramatic legacy from a past generation. Its focus on legacy and cross-generational relationships make it particularly apt to staging for contemporary audiences with the farm occupying important status in Australian legends.
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