image of person or book cover 6332908378102120492.jpg
Promotional poster for Texas, USA, production of Holy Day, in 2016
y separately published work icon Holy Day single work   drama  
Alternative title: The Red Sea
Issue Details: First known date: 2001... 2001 Holy Day
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'On the white frontier in mid-nineteenth century Australia, a lone, bloodied woman arrives at a traveller's rest in the midst of a violent desert storm with a shocking story to tell. Aborigines have allegedly murdered her husband and stolen her infant child. But an Aboriginal woman has a different story to tell. What would cause a missionary's wife to lie? What chance does the word of an Aboriginal woman have against hers? A chilling mystery that draws together the lives of four extraordinary women and their men, all struggling to survive in a hostile and misunderstood landscape. (1 act, 4 male, 4 female).' (Publication summary)

Production Details

  • First produced at the TXU Playhouse Adelaide, 21 August 2001 by the State Theatre Company of South Australia. Directed by Rosalba Clemente

    Performed at University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. The Little Theatre, University of Adelaide. October 5th-19th, 2013.

    Also performed in Houston (20 May) and Austin (25 May),Texas : 2016

    Cast (2001)

      EPSTEIN Peter Docker

    WAKEFIELD Frank Gallagher

    CORNELIUS Cameron Goodall

     GOUNDRY Dino Mamika

    LINDA Rachael Maza

    ELIZABETH Mandy McElhinney

    OBEDIENCE Melodie Reynolds

    NORA Kerry Walker 
     

    Creatives (2001)

    Director, Rosalba Clemente

    Designer, Cath Cantlon

    Lighting Designer, Mark Shelton

    Composer, Bernie Lynch

    Assistant Director, Sam Haren 
     

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press ; Playbox Theatre , 2001 .
      image of person or book cover 2021534979462587153.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 66p.
      Description: illus., ports.
      ISBN: 0868196460
      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. 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.
    • Strawberry Hills, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 1606109059975344499.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 80p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 3rd July 2015
         

      ISBN: 9781925359077
Alternative title: Holy Day (The Red Sea)
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 2004 .
      image of person or book cover 5207465916544322096.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 69p.
      Edition info: Rev. ed.
      ISBN: 0868197408

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Contemporary Settler Literature : Resources for Students and Teachers Travis Franks , St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2017 13356230 2017 single work multimedia bibliography

'Here you will find an introduction to settler colonial theory and contemporary settler colonial literature. This exhibition is intended to survey the major and minor authors, works, and ideas involved with settler colonial writing in Australia, and, to a lesser extent, the United States, since the 1990s.

'In addition to the overview statements on this page, you can click on other tabs to see timeline of publication dates in historical context, a glossary of common terms, an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources, brief discussions of themes and motifs useful for student researchers and teachers interested in including settler colonialism in their curricula, and information about comparative settler colonial studies between Australia and the US.'

Source: Abstract.

How Edgy Should High-School Theater Be? Alice Savage , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Houston Chronicle , 25 May 2016;

— Review of Holy Day Andrew Bovell , 2001 single work drama

'It has been a rough semester for my son. Blood stings his eyes, and it is hard to get the black stuff out of his teeth. But he endures the discomfort, the long rehearsals and being thrown about onstage because he knows he is telling an important story.

'Cyrus is in Carnegie Vanguard High School's production of Holy Day by Andrew Bovell, a theater piece set in the ruthless 19th-century Australian outback. The play is psychologically intense, an exploration of subjects such as violence, sex and race.'

Australian Gothic Drama : Mapping a Nation's Trauma from Convicts to the Stolen Generation Stephen Carleton , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , June no. 66 2015; (p. 11-39)
White Masculine Violence and Exploitation of Faith : Sexuality and the Violence of Colonisation in Holy Day Khairul Chowdhury , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Empowering and Disempowering Indigenes : Staging Australian Aboriginal Experience 2010; (p. 93-109)
The History Wars and Holy Day (The Red Sea): Andrew Bovell's Dramatic Black Armband Donald Pulford , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 20 no. 2 2006; (p. 150-154)
Donal Pulford examines Andrew Bovell's Holy Day in the context of the so-called history wars.
Bovell's Bleak Day of Reckoning Casts a Hard and Haunting Spell Bryce Hallett , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15 August 2003; (p. 12)

— Review of Holy Day Andrew Bovell , 2001 single work drama
Disquieting Production Opens Secret, Savage Past John McCallum , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 15 August 2003; (p. 14)

— Review of Holy Day Andrew Bovell , 2001 single work drama
Thinking About Our Past and Future Frank McKone , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 20 September 2003; (p. 8)

— Review of Holy Day Andrew Bovell , 2001 single work drama
In the Shadow of the Lost and Stolen Children Steven Carroll , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 23 September 2001; (p. 9)

— Review of Holy Day Andrew Bovell , 2001 single work drama
Contested Ground Murray Bramwell , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , September no. 216 2001; (p. 29)

— Review of Holy Day Andrew Bovell , 2001 single work drama
Bovell's Dramatic Reward, 10 Years in the Making Jo Roberts , 2002 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 12 November 2002; (p. 4)
One Man's Unsettling View of the Australian Frontier Bron Sibree , 2003 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 15 July 2003; (p. 9)
'Fear the Bitch Who Sheds No Tears' : The Persistence of the Female Scapegoat in Cultural Representations of Frontier Violence and Stolen Generations Victoria Haskins , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lilith , no. 12 2003; (p. 50-64) The Regenerative Spirit : Volume 2 : (Un)settling, (Dis)locations, (Post-)colonial, (Re)presentations - Australian Post-Colonial Reflections 2004; (p. 150-159)
This 'article takes this powerful and resonant historical drama [Holy Day] as its focus in exploring the continuity of an Australian cultural depiction of womanhood in the representation of white women's role in colonialism' (p.50).
Windshuttling the Right : Some Australian Literary and Historical Adaptations for the Stage Helen Thomson , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 3 no. 2004; (p. 133-142)
Focusing on the disjunction between versions of national history in white and black narratives of shared history, the article provides an overview of theatrical adaptations of cultural narratives that deal with Aboriginal experience in Australia's post-contact history.
Black and White : Australia's History Onstage in Four Plays of the New Millennium Alison Lyssa , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 48 2006; (p. 203-227)
Last amended 29 Aug 2022 15:36:00
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