y separately published work icon Reverses : A Comedy Drama single work   drama  
Issue Details: First known date: 1876... 1876 Reverses : A Comedy Drama
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.

Notes

  • In the ADB entry for Robert Percy Whitworth who was a friend of Clarke, it is stated that they were joint authors of "Reverses" and also "The Happy Land" although Whitworth's contribution is not acknowldged on the title page of either work.
  • Note by S. R. Simmons in the front of the facsimile copy of the 1876 edition: '...In the [Marcus Clarke] Memorial Volume [1884], [Hamilton] Mackinnon says: "Besides the unfinished libretto ('Queen Venus') the prolific writer left the plots and a portion of the matter of the following: 'Reverses' an Australian Comedy, almost completed..."

    'No mention is made of this in his list under the title of 'The Complete Works of Marcus Clarke' which follows the biography on pages 63-64; nor does the list figure again with the revised biography in the two later volumes mentioned: yet Mackinnon mentions other unfinished works.'

    'Who would expect to find a work "almost completed" made into a printed book? Yet here it is printed and bound with a title page which declares it to be copyright, but with no word as to it being unfinished, and no explanation as to why it was put into print. One can only surmise that Clarke put the work in the printer's hands intending to supply the concluding portion, and left the blanks under the headings for stage directions to be filled in by hand according to production requirements.'

    'It will be noticed that while Acts One and Two occupy 20 pages each, and Act Three 17 pages, Act Four only reaches to 11 pages. Mac's [Mackinnon's] "almost completed" suggests that Clarke had only to bring about the denouement in the Fourth Act to complete the play. (It ends abruptly). But to a novice it would appear that the denouement could hardly be brought about in the 9 pages required to complete the 4th Act. No mention is made anywhere as to the number of Acts projected for this piece... The original work will be found between the printed orange cover as here presented.'

Production Details

  • Original edition never performed. Second edition of the play was first produced by Dennis Davison at Monash University, 20 March 1979, followed by productions at the Ballarat College of Advanced Education, 24 March 1979, and at St Roch's Parish Hall, Glen Iris, Vic., 31 March 1979.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: English Dept., Arts Faculty, Monash University , 1981 .
      Extent: 90p.
      Edition info: 2nd ed.(facsimile)
      Note/s:
      • The 1981 second edition consists of the incomplete play, together with two endings, one being the ending in the MS copy held at the Mitchell Library, the other being by Dennis Davison. Davison has also inserted stage directions found in the original manuscript. For further details see Ian F McLaren Marcus Clarke: an annotated bibliography (pp.67-68).
      • Edited by Dennis Davison.
      ISBN: 0908481098

Works about this Work

French Revolution Meets Aust. Lit. : Drama, General and Specific Helen Thomson , 1986 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 80 1986; (p. 32-34)

— Review of Reverses : A Comedy Drama Marcus Clarke , Robert P. Whitworth , 1876 single work drama ; The Australian Stage : A Documentary History 1984 single work criticism
French Revolution Meets Aust. Lit. : Drama, General and Specific Helen Thomson , 1986 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 80 1986; (p. 32-34)

— Review of Reverses : A Comedy Drama Marcus Clarke , Robert P. Whitworth , 1876 single work drama ; The Australian Stage : A Documentary History 1984 single work criticism
Last amended 9 Jun 2010 13:58:58
Settings:
  • 1870s
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X