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Production Details
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First performed by the Adelaide University Theatre Guild at the Union Theatre, Adelaide, on 14 September 1962.
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Return season from 26 February to 31 March 2007 at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Changes to the set were made by the director to create a more modern scene.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Patrick White and the Path to Sarsaparilla : How a Great Novelist Became a Great Unread
2024
single work
biography
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , no. 8 2024; '‘Your sense of permanence is perverted’, wrote Patrick White in The Aunt’s Story.
‘True permanence is a state of multiplication and division’. The words are prescient,
for White himself has done rather well at dissolving into the impermanence of post-
mortem obscurity. Perhaps unsurprisingly in view of the pandemic, the thirtieth
anniversary of his death in 2020 left little imprint. No literary festival honoured the
occasion, and no journal did a special issue. If White is looking down at us from some
gumtree in the sky, he will be bathing in the lack of glory. He despised the hacks of
the ‘Oz lit’ industry as much as he loathed the ‘academic turds from Canberra’.'(Introduction)
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Patrick White's Theatre : Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960-2018
Sydney
:
Sydney University Press
,
2021
21650143
2021
multi chapter work
criticism
'One of the giants of Australian literature and the only Australian writer to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Patrick White received less acclaim when he turned his hand to playwriting.
'In Patrick White’s Theatre, Denise Varney offers a new analysis of White’s eight published plays, discussing how they have been staged and received over a period of 60 years. From the sensational rejection of The Ham Funeral by the Adelaide Festival in 1962 to 21st-century revivals incorporating digital technology, these productions and their reception illustrate the major shifts that have taken place in Australian theatre over time. Varney unpacks White’s complex and unique theatrical imagination, the social issues that preoccupied him as a playwright, and his place in the wider Australian modernist and theatrical traditions.'
Source: Abstract.
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Modernist Drama Decried : Patrick White, Spoiled Identity, and Failure as a 'Logic of Use'
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , October no. 71 2017; (p. 42-67)' This article discusses a hitherto unexamined letter exchange between the author Patrick White and the theatre director John Sumner. It concerns the production by the Union Theatre Repertory Company of two White plays in the 1960s: 'The Season at Sarsaparilla' (1962) and 'A Cheery Soul' (1963). The aperture of the correspondence also takes in productions of 'The Ham Funeral' (1961) and 'Night on Bald Mountain' (1964) by the Adelaide University Theatre Guild in the same period. Thus it provides a seminal example of 'failure' in White's five-year sojourn in Australian theatre from 1960 to 1965, a time when his four best-known plays were denounced by critics and rejected by audiences. By way of analysis, I deploy a range of interpre tive concepts drawn from Erving Goffman's Stigma (1963), most importantly the notions of 'spoiled identity' and 'role discrepancy'. I define the social fact of failure as a certain relation between actual social identity, virtual social identity, personal identity and ego-identity. The article examines the White- Sumner correspondence to show how failure was managed as a job of work by a 'logic of use' pursuant to its being a likely outcome of staging one of White's plays. In conclusion, it lists the features of a 'logic of use' and discusses the adaptive utility of failing in creative situations where the penalty to be paid - being designated 'a failure' - is both probable and heavy.' (Publication abstract)
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Before the Ham Funeral : 'The Young Man Appears' - John Tasker Returns Home
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , October no. 71 2017; (p. 13-41)'The young Australian theatre director John Tasker arrived back in Australia in 1959, having spent the previous seven years in England and Europe training as an actor, but also absorbing the rich cultural life on offer. On his return, Tasker soon made the acquaintance of Patrick White, who quickly became convinced that Tasker was the most promising young director in Sydney: Tasker would go on to direct the premiere productions of three of White's plays in just over two years in the early 1960s, beginning with The Ham Funeral. This article serves as a 'prologue' to White's early reception in the Australian theatre, tracing Tasker's own engagement with (a broadly defined) modernism and examining how his early - and today almost unknown - productions in Australia reflected this affinity, attracted White's attention, and indeed presaged the successful launch of the theatrical careers of both men.' (Publication abstract)
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A Cheery Soul Gave Us a Supreme Theatrical Monster
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Conversation , 31 January 2017; 'In 2004, Melbourne Theatre Company, where I worked at the time, asked me to write a short history for their 50th anniversary. A battered box was duly wheeled into my office, containing material from previous celebrations and books of yellowing press clippings.' (Introduction)
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Birth, Copulation and Death
1985
single work
review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , December/January no. 9 1985; (p. 24-25)
— Review of The Season at Sarsaparilla : A Charade of Suburbia in Two Acts 1962 single work drama -
Suburbia, in All Its Ragged Glory
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5 March 2007; (p. 17)
— Review of The Season at Sarsaparilla : A Charade of Suburbia in Two Acts 1962 single work drama -
Suburbia Sizzles in a Wry White Season
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 6 March 2007; (p. 10)
— Review of The Season at Sarsaparilla : A Charade of Suburbia in Two Acts 1962 single work drama -
Colourful Reworking of White
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 11 March 2007; (p. 21)
— Review of The Season at Sarsaparilla : A Charade of Suburbia in Two Acts 1962 single work drama -
Suburban Lives in a Goldfish Bowl
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 16 January 2008; (p. 7)
— Review of The Season at Sarsaparilla : A Charade of Suburbia in Two Acts 1962 single work drama -
Australian Contemporary Drama : Patrick White (from Australian Contemporary Drama 1909-1982 : A Critical Introduction)
1990
extract
— Appears in: Critical Essays on Patrick White 1990; (p. 174-189) -
Remembering Masculinities in the Theatre of War
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 46 2005; (p. 3-19) Surveys post-war theatrical productions of plays which articulate men's experiences at war and back home. '...this article explores the propagation of gender anxieties in performance during the post-war period of suburban expansion. In contrast with more recent productions which have sought to celebrate the survival, ingenuity and achievements of Australian men at war, productions from the post-war period were less overtly nationalistic and less assertively masculinist. ... post-war productions celebrated less the heroism of men at war than the nostalgia of their returning home' (3). -
The Way We Were
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17-18 February 2007; (p. 16-17) Rosalie Higson talks with Benedict Andrews about his production of The Season at Sarsaparilla with the Sydney Theatre Company's Actors Company in March 2007. -
Benediction on Patrick White
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 12 January 2008; (p. 16) -
Patrick White
1979
single work
criticism
— Appears in: After 'The Doll' : Australian Drama Since 1955 1979; (p. 49-68)
Awards
- 2008 winner Victorian Green Room Awards — Production : Theatre - Companies For the 2008 Sydney Theatre Company / Melbourne Theatre Company production.
- 2007 nominated Helpmann Awards for Performing Arts in Australia — Best Play Nominated for the 2007 Sydney Theatre Company production.
- 1962 recipient Elizabethan Theatre Trust
- Sydney, New South Wales,