Neil Cole Neil Cole i(A49038 works by) (birth name: Neil Donald Cole)
Born: Established: 1957 Millicent, Beachport - Millicent area, South East South Australia, South Australia, ;
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 y separately published work icon A Noble Cause Neil Cole , 2018 13738358 2018 single work drama

'A Noble Cause depicts Labor Prime Ministers from Watson to Keating in historical context with famous quotes, music from each era and replete with achievements, failure and often times political travail. The play presents the Prime Ministers for what they did, what they achieved and how they went about it and most importantly why they did what they did. Labor values evokes the term true believers, those who struggle against the prevailing status quo to improve society, to make it fairer, to achieve equality. This is the noble cause. The play will leave it to the audience to decide who pursued who achieved it.'

Source: La Mama.

1 1 y separately published work icon Stability in Mind : A Memoir of Politics and Plays in the Shadow of Bipolar Disorder Neil Cole , Chatswood : New Holland , 2012 Z1861782 2012 single work autobiography

This memoir is the story of the first politician in Australia to publicly admit to having a mental illness - bipolar mood disorder. Neil Cole was a lawyer, a Melbourne City Councillor and a Member of the Victorian Parliament. After only five years in parliament he was diagnosed with bipolar mood disorder and put onto lithium. The revelation, the cathartic experience of this diagnosis changed his life forever. Having lived with the unpleasantness of the illness, the lack of diagnosis over a period of seventeen years since he first sought treatment, and the onset of the illness, made it difficult to adjust. The story of living with an undiagnosed mental illness of itself is profoundly moving, interesting and sad. It includes major sexual problems, obsessions, high elation to deep melancholic depression, spending sprees and impulsive buying to name but a few. In 1995 Cole had to resign as Shadow Attorney General in the Victorian Parliament after a dispute with the Leader of the Opposition. At the time of his resignation his illness was leaked to the media. This one event was to open a new chapter his life and in the public acceptance of mental illness.


It was also to profoundly affect his life. As a result he ended up in a mental hospital for three weeks. This memoir explores the vexed question of upbringing as it relates to illnesses of the mind. A mental illness can lead a person to become what they are, the illness and its symptoms can guide a person to pursue particular directions. Finally whether it is his early life, school, university, family upbringing, politics or the stage it is all interesting, novel, lots of humour, pathos, and revelation about living with a mental illness. The memoir will offer hope and an explanation of how to life with bipolar mood disorder.

(Source: Trove)

1 1 Tunnel Rat Neil Cole , 2011 single work drama war literature

'In the dark basements of an ancient city, in the depths of the Vietnamese Chu Chi Tunnels in 1968 a 17 year old United States soldier is ordered, because he is short, to go down the tunnels to look for the enemy - another tunnel rat is born.

At 17 our protagonist Ronnie Giles was given the option of Vietnam or jail, he chose Vietnam. Ronnie comes to us as an older man; wiser but troubled. He cannot remove the image of the woman he killed deep within the enemy's tunnels. His experienced psychiatrist Lucy, a child of Holocaust survivors, works him through his nightmares. By the ned of the psychiatric sessions both Ronnie and Lucy learn a bitter-sweet truth, same same but different ....

In its own way "Tunnel Rat" explores the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder and what is important to people and a nation.' Source: www.mentalhealthvic.org.au/ (Sighted 28/10/2011).

1 Neil Cole : The Books That Changed Me Neil Cole , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 2 January 2011; (p. 4-5)
1 3 y separately published work icon Colonel Surry's Insanity Neil Cole , Melbourne : Beagles Den , 2010 Z1731497 2010 single work novel

'This book explores the life of Colonial John Surry. A fictional character based on fact.

'A manic-depressive pleads not guilty on the grounds of his insanity to the biggest crime of theft ever committed in the state of Queensland, Australia. No one has ever pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity for a theft matter before. The novel recounts the course of his mental illness during his army service in the Second World War, in the Middle East, in the Pacific and after the war leading up to this event. The book takes place in the sixties against the backdrop of the insanity of the Vietnam War which he totally opposes.

'Neil has based this novel on extensive interviews with people with bi-polar and other mental illnesses, leading to a fictional work that charts the coarse of a person with manic depression.'

Source: Neil Cole's website, http://www.neilcoleplaywright.com/
Sighted: 27/10/2010

1 2 Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto : The Story of Dr Emmanuel Ringelblum Neil Cole , 2010 single work drama
1 1 Topo Neil Cole , 2007 single work drama

'Enrique 'Topo' Rodriguez played Rugby Union for Australia in the 1984 Grand Slam tour of the United Kingdom. He retired from playing rugby in 1987 and became extremely ill with depressive episodes lasting continuously for eight years before he was diagnosed with bipolar mood disorder.

'The play describes theatrically the 1984 tour, his coach Alan Jones and Mark Ella, an Aboriginal player who was happy to retire early at the end of the tour. On the other hand, Topo continued on with his career for several years. While he was playing rugby depression was dormant, and then it surfaces immediately after he stopped playing leading to extreme unhappiness.

'The play traces the triumph, and tribulations, of the coach, the two players, contrasting the differences in each others lives. The play is a keen insight into the effects of melancholia and depression on an otherwise high achieving and healthy person's life.'

Source: Seymour Centre website, http://www.seymour.usyd.edu.au/
Sighted: 28 May 2007.

1 1 The Reunion Neil Cole , 2006 single work drama humour
1 3 Trial of Adolf Eichmann Neil Cole , 2005 single work drama
1 1 Personality Games Gordon Parker , Neil Cole , 2004 single work drama
1 2 Dr Cade Neil Cole , 2002 single work drama
1 1 y separately published work icon Alive at Williamstown Pier Neil Cole , 1996 Haymarket : Esson Press , 1999 Z872773 1996 single work drama humour
X