Daybreak (play)
Daybreak | |
---|---|
Written by | Catherine Shepherd |
Characters | Simon Martel Caroline Martel Jeanne Martel Mrs Carmichael Francis Gillan Captain North Lt Prideaux Phoebe Moon Rufus Blainey Mrs Turner Mrs Moss Ellen Beam |
Date premiered | August, 1938[1] |
Place premiered | Theatre Royal, Hobart |
Original language | English |
Subject | Hobart |
Genre | drama |
Setting | Colonial Hobart |
Daybreak is a 1938 Australian play by Catherine Shepherd.[2][3]
It won the Melbourne National Theatre Movement's Australia-wide three-act play competition, and is on the Playwrights' Advisory Board's list of recommended plays.[4]
The play was published in 1942. It was one of the most successful plays to come from a Tasmanian author.[5][6]
Leslie Rees wrote of the play in his history of Australian drama, calling it "Catherine Shepherd's most considerable "Australian" drama... Perhaps Daybreak lacks the scope of a "full-length" play and has a certain starchiness, along with its fine feeling, but is a worthy conception, a criticism of smug inflexible authority rather than of deliberate tyranny."[7]
One critic felt it was "heavily indebted" to The Barretts of Wimpole Street.[8]
Adaptations[edit]
The play was adapted into a 60 minute version for radio in 1938 (as part of the ABC's Australian Radio Drama Week[9]), 1939, 1940,[10] 1944 (when it was the first play broadcast by the ABC from Newcastle[11]) 1948 and 1951.[12]
Premise[edit]
In colonial Hobart, harsh Simon Martel is the father of two girls, Caroline and Jeanne. They revolt against him and Jeanne runs off with an English idealist man called Francis, who is determined to build a utopia with some convicts. Francis dies and Simon is killed by a convict.[13]
References[edit]
- ^ "Good Play Well Produced". The Mercury. Vol. CXLIX, no. 21, 117. Tasmania, Australia. 1 August 1938. p. 5. Retrieved 24 July 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "The Drama in Ausctralia". The West Australian. Vol. 55, no. 16, 553. Western Australia. 22 July 1939. p. 5. Retrieved 24 July 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Plays of the Air— Catherine Shepherd", ABC Weekly, 2 (22), Sydney: ABC, 1 June 1940, nla.obj-1370701369, retrieved 5 September 2023 – via Trove
- ^ "PLAYWRIGHTS OF AUSTRALIA FLAIR FOR CHARACTER STUDY", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 35 (30), Sydney: Wireless Press, July 27, 1940, retrieved 5 September 2023 – via Trove
- ^ ""Oliv[?]" Looks at Life Topics of the Moment from a Woman's Point of View". The Mercury. Vol. CLXVI, no. 24, 010. Tasmania, Australia. 20 November 1947. p. 10. Retrieved 24 July 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Play on Tasmania Well Received". The Mercury. Vol. CLXXIV, no. 25, 942. Tasmania, Australia. 15 February 1954. p. 6. Retrieved 24 July 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Rees, Leslie (1953). Towards an Australian Drama. p. 117.
- ^ "Between You and Me and the Microphone", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 31 (22), Sydney: Wireless Press, June 3, 1938, nla.obj-714445799, retrieved 5 September 2023 – via Trove
- ^ "Australian Radio Drama Week Commissions Festival —May 8–15", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 31 (17), Sydney: Wireless Press, April 29, 1938, retrieved 5 September 2023 – via Trove
- ^ "Plays of the Air — Catherine Shepherd", ABC Weekly, 2 (22), Sydney, 1 June 1940, retrieved 24 July 2023 – via Trove
- ^ ABC Weekly, vol. 6, Sydney, 15 April 1944, retrieved 5 September 2023 – via Trove
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "A.B.C. Radio Plays", ABC Weekly, 13 (1), Sydney, 6 January 1951, retrieved 5 September 2023 – via Trove
- ^ "Repertory Play". The Mercury. Vol. CXLIX, no. 21, 118. Tasmania, Australia. 2 August 1938. p. 2. Retrieved 24 July 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- 1938 plays
- 1930s Australian plays
- 1938 Australian radio dramas
- 1939 Australian radio dramas
- 1940 Australian radio dramas
- 1944 Australian radio dramas
- 1948 Australian radio dramas
- 1951 Australian radio dramas
- Australian plays adapted for radio
- Australian radio dramas set in Tasmania
- Australian radio dramas set in colonial Australia
- Works by Catherine Shepherd
- Plays set in Tasmania
- Plays set in colonial Australia