Shoulder the Sky
Shoulder the Sky is a 1945 Australian radio play by Dymphna Cusack, based on her stage play, about canteen workers in Newcastle.[1][2]
Leslie Rees said the play "making a somewhat dangerous virtue of formlessness, has wit and bite and passion."[3] He later caled it " a trenchant, plotless, constantly unfolding view of the emotional and physical conditions brought by the war to our cities" adding:
There are Saroyanesque characters—drunks, outcasts, lost souls—as well as ordinary soldiers and girls. There are cynical-sentimental attitudes, forceful criticisms of the maladjustments of life, bitterness, mordancy, and despair, matched by optimism and faith in ordinary people. A long queue of characters jostle each other, make love, revile, drink, are sick and sorry, find the worst or best in themselves and in one another. Through it all the author seems to be pressing home the truth that the private muddle and turbulence produced by war on the home front is far from pretty, in fact ruthless and anti-social.[4]
The play was adapted for ABC radio in 1945.[5]
The play was published in 1950 in a collection of Cusack's plays.[6][7][8]
The stage play appears have been written in the 1940s but seems to have been first performed on stage in Darwin in 1951.[9]
References[edit]
- ^ "Dymphna Cusack: writer of conviction". Tribune. No. 2214. New South Wales, Australia. 11 November 1981. p. 13. Retrieved 18 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Phil, Peter (2016). Drama in Silent Rooms. Eureka. p. 212.
- ^ "Drama Chronicle", Meanjin Papers, vol. 4, no. 2, Winter 1945, ISSN 1324-1737, retrieved 18 February 2024 – via Trove
- ^ Rees, Leslie (1953). Towards an Australian Drama. p. 119.
- ^ "Thursday", ABC Weekly, 7 July 1945, retrieved 18 February 2024 – via Trove
- ^ "Book News". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 35,230. 18 November 1950. p. 9. Retrieved 18 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Books In Brief". The West Australian. Vol. 66, no. 20,056. 28 October 1950. p. 20. Retrieved 18 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Book Reviews". The News. Vol. 55, no. 8,470. Adelaide. 29 September 1950. p. 12. Retrieved 18 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Society Of Arts To Do 'Shoulder The Sky'". Northern Standard. Vol. 6, no. 260. 1 June 1951. p. 8. Retrieved 18 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
External links[edit]
- Shoulder the Sky at Ausstage