AustLit

'By the early 1960s, the Broken Hill Repertory Society came to be recognised - alongside the Barrier Industrial Unions' Band, the Philharmonic Society and the Quartette Club - as a pillar of the civic infrastructure, a testament to the vitality of the city's cultural life. Reporting on Broken Hill in 1963 for ABC Television's Four Corners, Frank Bennett profiled the recently constructed Repertory Playhouse as 'Broken Hill's biggest, best and newest cultural landmark' and acknowledged the financial support given by the mining companies, although his story was criticised by locals for not representing Broken Hill as a 'progressive' city and overlooking the range of cultural activities to be found there. With its repertoire of modern drama from London and New York, the Repertory's contributions to Broken Hill were accommodated within a broad mix of live entertainments, some imported, much locally produced, that sustained audiences into the 1960s.' (Publication abstract)