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Albert Hunt proposed staging The White House Goes to the Movies to the organisers of the 1976 Adelaide Festival as a double bill with The White Man's Mission. The show comprises two short plays that had previously been performed in England by Albert Hunt's Bradford company. Each looks at a particular American presidency - those of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Hunt's take on Johnson was to see him as if he was Longfellow Deeds, the simple country bumpkin who refuses to be corrupted by the city in Capra's Mr Deeds Goes to Town. He treats Nixon as if he were Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot.
Source: Errol O'Neill. Challenging the Centre, p.64).
Notes
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Because much of the humour in both playlets depends on knowing the two films, and because Hunt had only sent the Popular Theatre Troupe incomplete fragments, the members found the style and concepts difficult to stage. Errol O'Neil recalls that 'Hunt re-shaped the material immediately prior to [Adelaide] Festival performances in March 1976 but the shows were dropped soon afterward. This confirmed the general feeling in the Troupe that they needed to devise their own shows whenever possible, and was the last pre-written script used' (O'Neill, p.64).
Production Details
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1976: Adelaide Festival of the Arts; ca. March
- Director Richard Fotheringham; Producer Popular Theatre Troupe in association with the Adelaide Festival of the Arts.
- Cast: Kathryn Porrill, Margaret Bornhorst, Roslyn Atkinson, Duncan Campbell, Nick Hughes.
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Last amended 4 Nov 2016 08:10:34
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