image of person or book cover 7852407618703710297.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Honour single work   drama   - 19 scenes
Issue Details: First known date: 1995... 1995 Honour
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.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'An unsettling play about infidelity seen from the perspective of the three women involved: the wife, the lover and the daughter.

'George and Honor have been happily married for thirty-two years. She is a successful writer, he is a revered columnist. They have a perfect understanding of each other. Until a pushy young female journalist - on an assignment to 'profile' George - quite deliberately seeks to undermine that understanding. The fallout is dreadful - but beautifully and convincingly portrayed in all its painful consequences.' (Publication summary)

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Teachers' notes via publisher's website.

Production Details

  • First produced by the Playbox Theatre Centre at C.U.B. Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, 14 November 1995.

    Director: Ariette Taylor.


    Also produced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1996.


    Produced on Broadway, New York, in 1998.


    Produced at the Cottesloe Theatre, London, U.K. by the National Theatre Company in 2003.


    Set to be produced at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribili, 9 June to 4 July 2020.

    Director: Kate Champion.

    Cast: Lucy Bell and Catherine Văn-Davies,

    Production cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.


    Produced by Ensemble Theatre, Kirribili, 23 April - 5 June 2021.

    Director: Kate Champion.

    Cast: Lucy Bell, Huw Higginson, and Poppy Lynch.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Paddington, Kings Cross area, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Melbourne, Victoria,: Currency Press ; Playbox Theatre Centre, Monash University , 1995 .
      image of person or book cover 7852407618703710297.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 58p.
      Description: illus., ports
      ISBN: 9780868197821
      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.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Nick Hern Books ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 1805088300329321226.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 96p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 28 February 2003
      ISBN: 9781854597281
Alternative title: オナー
Transliterated title: Onā
Language: Japanese
    • Yokohama, Honshu,
      c
      Japan,
      c
      East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
      :
      Oseania Shuppansha ,
      2001 .
      image of person or book cover 7315012933852598808.jpg
      Extent: 154p.
      ISBN: 4872030761
      Series: y separately published work icon オーストラリア演劇叢書 Australian Drama Series Yokohama : オセアニア出版社 , 1993 15756704 1993 series - publisher drama

      This series publishes Japanese translations of 20th century Australian drama.

      Number in series: 4

Works about this Work

Loved the Work Meg McKone , 2010 single work correspondence
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 June 2010; (p. 8)
An Intelligent, Well-Acted Dissection of Infidelity Glenn Burns , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 June 2010; (p. 8)

— Review of Honour Joanna Murray-Smith , 1995 single work drama
Hughes Brings Honor to Canberra Stage Jacqueline Williams , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 June 2010; (p. 10)
Jacqueline Williams reports on the Sydney Theatre Company's June 2010 Canberra season of Honour.
Complex Web of Emotions Philip O'Brien , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 June 2010; (p. 15-16)
Subtle Shifts in an Urbane World's Balance of Power Jason Blake , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24-25 April 2010; (p. 14)

— Review of Honour Joanna Murray-Smith , 1995 single work drama
In the Top Ten Stephen Brown , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 7 March no. 5214 2003; (p. 20)

— Review of Honour Joanna Murray-Smith , 1995 single work drama
Review of performance at the Cottesloe Theatre, United Kingdom.
Bourgeois Fairytales Turn to Dust Thuy On , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 3 May 2004; (p. 7)

— Review of The Frail Man Anthony Crowley , 2003 single work drama ; Honour Joanna Murray-Smith , 1995 single work drama
Subtle Shifts in an Urbane World's Balance of Power Jason Blake , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24-25 April 2010; (p. 14)

— Review of Honour Joanna Murray-Smith , 1995 single work drama
An Intelligent, Well-Acted Dissection of Infidelity Glenn Burns , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 June 2010; (p. 8)

— Review of Honour Joanna Murray-Smith , 1995 single work drama
For Love, but Not for Honor Margaret Cook , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 17 November 1995; (p. 15)

— Review of Honour Joanna Murray-Smith , 1995 single work drama
Colliding with Success Jane Faulkner , 2002 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 13 November 2002; (p. 3)
Show Stealers Juliet Herd , John McCallum , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Australian , 21 February 2003; (p. 13, 16)
Article discusses how Australian playwrights were once mostly ignored in Europe and are now receiving plenty of exposure and recognition.
Making a Play for Celluloid Catherine Taylor , 1998 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 11 May 1998; (p. 17)
Modern Dolls, Global Spin: Joanna Murray-Smith Rachel Fensham , Denise Varney , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Dolls' Revolution : Australian Theatre and Cultural Imagination 2005; (p. 109-156)
'This chapter positions Murray-Smith and her fascination with the modulations between language, truth and reality as a global playwright of modern drama...' (p.114)
Recent Australian Women's Writing for the Stage Helen Thomson , 1998 single work criticism
— Appears in: Our Australian Theatre in the 1990s 1998; (p. 104-116)
Helen Thomson surveys Australian women's writing for the stage, from 1970 to the 1990s, illustrating the diversity of feminist concerns and the forms these take in performances.
Last amended 21 Oct 2022 11:49:17
X