Max Bartlett Max Bartlett i(A146504 works by)
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 form y separately published work icon The Magic Circle Club Peter Homewood , John-Michael Howson , Max Bartlett , Godfrey Philipp , ( dir. Rob Weekes ) Melbourne : Channel 0 , 1965-1967 Z1854449 1965-1967 series - publisher film/TV children's fantasy

Godfrey Philipps's first major television production for children, The Magic Circle Club was strongly inspired by pantomime, including not only a mixture of dialogue and song-and-dance routines but also the casting of male actors as elderly female characters, in the tradition of pantomime dames. The program also drew heavily from fairytales, featuring a number talking animals, stereotypical villains, and magical characters.

Initially, the program's storylines ran over a five-episode story arc, beginning in Monday's episode and concluding in Friday's. Later in the program's run, the story arcs were truncated to four episodes, with Friday's episode dedicated to a standalone set in a toy store stocked with anthropomorphised dolls.

The program was axed by ATV-0 in 1967 because of the high cost of production. Though the ABC immediately offered to undertake production, Reg Ansett (then owner of ATV-0) refused to relinquish ownership of the intellectual property, and the aBC instead produced similar but distinct (and equally successful) Adventure Island.

In December 1965, a specially written episode of The Magic Circle Club, 'The Stolen Smile', was performed on stage at the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne, stage-managed by Sue Nattras, Simon Wincer, and Jim McElroy.

X