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form y separately published work icon The Flail of God single work   radio play   - One act
Adaptation of The Flail of God Max Afford , 1931 single work drama
Issue Details: First known date: 1932... 1932 The Flail of God
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A minister's ten year old son disappears, and a headless and mutilated body is found in the Thames. A partly obliterated birth mark—a star on the chest—convinces the minister that his brilliant and motherless son, to whom he was devotedly attached, has been foully murdered. He secures the position of hangman in the hope of one day executing his son's destroyer. The play opens with the newspaper reporters trying to play cards and taking brandy to screw their nerves up to witness an execution, which the hangman gloats over. After it is finished, the prison chaplain tells the hangman that the poor creature was more sinned against than sinning. "He told me yesterday that his father was a clergyman, and they were everything to each other. At the age of 10 he had a severe shock, and lost his memory. Years later he recovered, to find himself in league with a gang of criminals. He failed to find any trace of his father, who would have recognised him by a peculiar birthmark—a star—on his chest." With a gasp of horror the stricken father realises that he has just executed his own son!'

Source:

Kooee, 'City Jottings', Kapunda Herald, 30 October 1931, p.3.

(Synopsis based on the original repertory theatre production.)

Notes

  • First Australian-written drama broadcast on ABC radio.

Production Details

  • Broadcast on 5CL (Adelaide) on Monday 16 May 1932, from 8:05 pm. Repeated on 19 July 1932. Does not appear to have been broadcast nationally.

    Cast and characters (May broadcast): Frank Part (James Tibey, Hangman at Greycliffe Prison), Frank Johnstone (Mr Jennings, of the 'Dally Mail'), Don Fraser (Mr Eaton, of 'The Standard / Mr Wilson, of the 'Daily Recorder'), Mostyn Skinner (Young Reporter), and Anthony Young (Rev. Ambrose Pierce, Prison Chaplain).

    Source:

    'Radio Broadcasting: The Week's Programmes', Chronicle, 12 May 1932, p.20.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 11 Jun 2015 13:04:13
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