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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'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.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Patrick White’s Theatre: Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960–2018 by Denise Varney (review)
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Modern Drama , September vol. 65 no. 3 2022; (p. 466-469)
— Review of Patrick White's Theatre : Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960-2018 2021 multi chapter work criticism'Patrick White’s literary reputation has been built largely on his achievements as a novelist. But the Nobel Prize winner and author of twelve novels, several collections of short stories, and a memoir wrote for the theatre throughout his life, and he began his career writing short plays. He enjoyed the theatre from a young age, when his mother took him to see plays in Sydney during the 1920s. White’s love of the theatre extended later in life to the generous patronage of several celebrated Australian actors, including Max Cullen, Kate Fitzpatrick, Robyn Nevin, and Kerry Walker. White’s friend from his London days, the actor Ronald Waters, said that White wanted to write “one great play more than all the novels”' (Introduction)
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Patrick White the Playwright
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Text : Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 1 2022;
— Review of Patrick White's Theatre : Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960-2018 2021 multi chapter work criticism 'Australian critics have lamented Patrick White’s disappearance from our literary culture in recent years. While the legend of the man remains – the man who refused a knighthood, the man who used his Australian of the Year speech to declare that Australia Day is for ‘self- searching rather than trumpet-blowing’, the man whose prose, a chapter from The Eye of the Storm (1973), submitted under the anagrammatic name ‘Wraith Picket’, was rejected by agents and publishers in a 2006 literary hoax by The Australian – so does the question of his legacy: does anybody still read White? Christos Tsiolkas (2018) admits feeling ‘ashamed’ for not engaging with ‘arguably the most eminent of Australian writers’ earlier in his life. Describing how his ornate style bewildered our nation of ‘plain-speaking larrikins,’ Madeleine Watts (2019) concludes ‘it would seem, in the end, that nobody could be bothered with Patrick White.’ Cultural cringe, identity politics, impenetrable style – many ponder why White, who felt Australia ‘in my blood’ but also acknowledged ‘at heart I am a Londoner’, has struggled for survival among our nation’s readership (Marr, 1994, p. 419). Despite offering different reasons, critics appear to have reached at least one in Martin Thomas’s (2021) words, ‘a Great Unread’. And this is to say nothing of his drama.' (Introduction) -
Untimely Theatrics : A New Study of Patrick White's Drama
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January–February no. 439 2022; (p. 42-43)
— Review of Patrick White's Theatre : Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960-2018 2021 multi chapter work criticism
-
Untimely Theatrics : A New Study of Patrick White's Drama
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January–February no. 439 2022; (p. 42-43)
— Review of Patrick White's Theatre : Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960-2018 2021 multi chapter work criticism -
Patrick White the Playwright
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Text : Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 1 2022;
— Review of Patrick White's Theatre : Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960-2018 2021 multi chapter work criticism 'Australian critics have lamented Patrick White’s disappearance from our literary culture in recent years. While the legend of the man remains – the man who refused a knighthood, the man who used his Australian of the Year speech to declare that Australia Day is for ‘self- searching rather than trumpet-blowing’, the man whose prose, a chapter from The Eye of the Storm (1973), submitted under the anagrammatic name ‘Wraith Picket’, was rejected by agents and publishers in a 2006 literary hoax by The Australian – so does the question of his legacy: does anybody still read White? Christos Tsiolkas (2018) admits feeling ‘ashamed’ for not engaging with ‘arguably the most eminent of Australian writers’ earlier in his life. Describing how his ornate style bewildered our nation of ‘plain-speaking larrikins,’ Madeleine Watts (2019) concludes ‘it would seem, in the end, that nobody could be bothered with Patrick White.’ Cultural cringe, identity politics, impenetrable style – many ponder why White, who felt Australia ‘in my blood’ but also acknowledged ‘at heart I am a Londoner’, has struggled for survival among our nation’s readership (Marr, 1994, p. 419). Despite offering different reasons, critics appear to have reached at least one in Martin Thomas’s (2021) words, ‘a Great Unread’. And this is to say nothing of his drama.' (Introduction) -
Patrick White’s Theatre: Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960–2018 by Denise Varney (review)
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Modern Drama , September vol. 65 no. 3 2022; (p. 466-469)
— Review of Patrick White's Theatre : Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960-2018 2021 multi chapter work criticism'Patrick White’s literary reputation has been built largely on his achievements as a novelist. But the Nobel Prize winner and author of twelve novels, several collections of short stories, and a memoir wrote for the theatre throughout his life, and he began his career writing short plays. He enjoyed the theatre from a young age, when his mother took him to see plays in Sydney during the 1920s. White’s love of the theatre extended later in life to the generous patronage of several celebrated Australian actors, including Max Cullen, Kate Fitzpatrick, Robyn Nevin, and Kerry Walker. White’s friend from his London days, the actor Ronald Waters, said that White wanted to write “one great play more than all the novels”' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2023 shortlisted ASAL Awards — Walter McRae Russell Award
- Netherwood 1983 single work drama
- Night on Bald Mountain 1964 single work drama
- Shepherd on the Rocks 1987 single work drama
- Signal Driver : A Morality Play for the Times 1983 single work drama
- The Ham Funeral 1947 single work drama
- The Season at Sarsaparilla : A Charade of Suburbia in Two Acts 1962 single work drama
