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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
A dramatisation of "the political awakening of a guilt stricken bourgeois woman, married to a wealthy capitalist engineer, who has a Communist brother who oversees her enlightenment, and wins her love."
Source: Nicole Moore, "The Burdens Twain or Not Forgetting Yourself: The Writing of Betty Roland's Life," Hecate 18, no. 1 (1992): 6.
Notes
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A journalist from The Workers Star (Perth) attended a reading rehearsal sometime before August 26th, 1938 and published a short promotional piece praising the representation of Communism in the play.
Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240636792
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The play was selected from eighty manuscripts submitted to the Western Australian Drama Festival competition and awarded a £50 royalty by the festival executives.
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No manuscript survives, except for an excerpt entitled "Prosperity Around the Corner"
Source: https://search.proquest.com/docview/210926126?accountid=14723
Production Details
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1938: First performed in the Patch Theatre, WA
1938: His Majesty's Theatre, Perth; 8 October
- Producer: Keith M. George
- Cast: Dorothy Powell, Howard Smith, Keith George, Phyll Harnett, George McCorkill, George Wignell, Cliff McDonald, Poole Johnson, May Berry, Maurice Lachberg, Pat Howard.
- Produced as the closing play of the Western Australian Drama Festival that ran between the 1st and 8th of October.
- Other plays performed at the festival: Street Scene by Elmer Rice (produced by the Perth Repertory Club), Love from a Stranger by Frank Vosper (produced by the Marlowe Club), The Ascent of F6 by Auden and Isherwood (produced by the Independent Players), The Farmer's Wife by Eden Phillpotts (produced by the Garrick Club, Guildford), The Tempest by William Shakespeare (produced by the Shakespeare Club), A Kiss for Cinderella by Barrie (produced by the Pleiades Club).
- Attracted an audience of 1400
Sources: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46481719
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/42111125
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46482304
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/42103500
1939: New Theatre League Club Rooms, 36 Pitt Street, Sydney; 18, 19 and 26 March
- Producer: The New Theatre League, Edgar Yardley
- Cast: John Sherman, Jean Blue, Malcolm Whitaker, Tom Godfrey, Edgar Yardley, Betty Roland
Sources: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17566687
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/236292503
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231098239
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247558080
1939: New Theatre League Club Rooms, 36 Pitt Street, Sydney; 20 May
- Producer: New Theatre League, Edgar Yardley
- Cast: John Sherman, Jean Blue, Guido Baracchi, Dennis Nash, Betty Roland, Edgar Yardley, Tom Godfrey, Bruce Beeby.
- Produced as part of "Australian Drama Month" festival under the auspices of the British Drama League.
- Other plays produced at the festival include The Touch of Silk, also by Betty Roland (produced by Bryant's Playhouse), as well as The Ruling Passion by Dr. Duhig, To Mary, for Valour by Kitty Winter, Dampier's Ghost by Henrietta Drake, His Honour comes to Tea and Red Sky at Morning by Dymphna Cusack (produced by Teachers' Federation Dramatic Society), Interval by Summer L???e-Elliot (produced by Independent Theatre), By Wire by Mary Penelope Lucy (produced by Sydney University Dramatic Society), The Better Things of Life by J. W. Heming (produced by Australian Perpertory Theatre Players), Heatwave in the West by Dr. Macredi Luker (produced by Players' Club), Wives Have Their Uses by Gwen Meredith (produced by Chelsea Theatre Group), and Impasse and Winners by C. Hansby Read (produced by Talatah Players).
Sources: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17579168
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17588665
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-573179740 Page 34
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
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y
Prosperity Around the Corner
1938
(Manuscript version)x401084
Z452242
1938
extract
drama
Henderson has lost his job at the company he has worked at for thirty years. He confronts his boss, Martin Boyd, who is sympathetic but doesn't understand the reality of unemployment for his workers.
Works about this Work
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Introduction
1988
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Touch of Silk [and] Granite Peak 1988; (p. vii-xxiii) -
A Prize-Winning Play
1939
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 22 March vol. 60 no. 3084 1939; (p. 34)
— Review of Are You Ready, Comrade? 1938 single work drama -
Untitled
1939
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Quarterly , June vol. 11 no. 2 1939; (p. 119)
— Review of Are You Ready, Comrade? 1938 single work drama
-
Untitled
1939
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Quarterly , June vol. 11 no. 2 1939; (p. 119)
— Review of Are You Ready, Comrade? 1938 single work drama -
A Prize-Winning Play
1939
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 22 March vol. 60 no. 3084 1939; (p. 34)
— Review of Are You Ready, Comrade? 1938 single work drama -
Introduction
1988
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Touch of Silk [and] Granite Peak 1988; (p. vii-xxiii)
Awards
- 1938 winner Westralian Drama Festival Award
