Aboriginal Theatre single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Aboriginal Theatre
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Kevin Gilbert's The Cherry Pickers, written in 1968, before the ocker New Wave started, anticipated many of the issues that were to be raised in the debates over identity poitics in the 1980s. Originally workshopped at the Mews Theatre, Sydney, in 1971, with an all Aboriginal cast as Gilbert insisted, the play was the forerunner of a great body of work by Indigenous playwrights.

Notes

  • Contains image of a scene from the 1982 Swan River Stage Company production of The Dreamers.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Belonging : Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century John McCallum , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2009 Z1576280 2009 multi chapter work criticism

    'John McCallum's new history explores the relationship between 20th century Australian drama and a developing concept of nation. The book focuses on the creative tension sparked by dueling impulses between nationalism and cosmopolitanism; and between artistic seriousness and larrikin populism. It explores issues such as the domineering influence of European high culture, the ongoing popularity of representational realism, the influence of popular theatrical forms, the ambivalence (between affection and aggression) of much Australian humour and satire, and the interaction between the personal and the political in drama.

    'The strength of Belonging is its comprehensiveness. Anyone studying an Australian play will find it here in the context of the other works by its author or the time and place in which it was written. As well as a rundown of the major writers and their works, the book also investigates a number of lesser known plays and writers.

    This authoritative study of Australian drama gives an account of the relationship between our theatre and our sense of self while taking into account a broad range of influences that helped to shape both.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2009
    pg. 301-325
Last amended 8 Jul 2009 15:19:18
301-325 Aboriginal Theatresmall AustLit logo
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