AustLit
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'The First Joanna' is a play set on a vineyard in post-World War Two South Australia. Joanna is determined to leave her husband and his close-knit family when she finds the diaries of her husband's grandmother, 'the great and glorious' first Joanna. Through the diaries, family secrets are revealed, and a new history is written.
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'The First Joanna' was certainly a literary success. Blewett won the Playwrights' Advisory Board Stage play competition in December 1947 ('Play Wins £75 for Melb. Girl, 1948'). Another notable winner of this prize was Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (AustLit). With winning, Blewett received a cash prize of £75 (approx. $150 today with the buying power of over $2000) and an offer from producer May Hollingworth to stage her play professionally with the Metropolitan Theatre in Sydney ('Stage Play Competition', 1947; Alomes, 19). Leslie Rees, who was chairman of the Playwrights Advisory Board, claimed in the Sydney Morning Herald that Blewett’s work showed a professional understanding of theatre. The judges felt that the theme in 'The First Joanna' had a 'Crude Ore from a playing point of view' ('Stage Play Competition', 1947). The play was also performed by amateur companies within the same year in the southern capitals (Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth) (AusStage).
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The Play and Adaptations
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Cover of Perth Repertory Program, 1948The First Joanna : A Play in Three Acts -
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The Age [TV/Radio Supplement], 17-23 February 1961, p.2.The First Joanna
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Critics' Response
via TroveThe critics’ response to ‘The First Joanna’ was mostly positive. The Sydney Morning Herald called the play a first-class drama and the playwright's message about Australian traditions and fantasy, an important one ('Family Drama in New Prize Play, 1948'). The same article claimed that the first act was 'too tense' and that the second lacked any tension ('Family Drama in New Prize Play', 1948). Critics at the Adelaide performance had similar comments about the first act, considering it drawn out ('"The First Joanna" at Repertory', 1948). Both commentaries agree, however, that the aunts were a sprinkle of (well-portrayed) joy within the play's serious nature ('Repertory Club Success', 1948).
Despite the critics’ comments audiences were not worried and continued to attend performances. The Advertiser referred to the opening night's audience as 'appreciative' of the performance ('"The First Joanna" at Repertory', 1948). While an article, a few years after the play’s initial run in Sydney, claimed that the play’s rights were often requested by small town, amateur companies, one paper even implied that Blewett was being paid more than £100 in copyright (Stage Whispers, 1949).
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Written by Kazzandra Maunder
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