AustLit logo
image of person or book cover 613568724143220735.jpg
y separately published work icon Lady in Danger : A Comedy-Thriller in Three Acts single work   drama   crime   humour   - Three acts
Issue Details: First known date: 1942... 1942 Lady in Danger : A Comedy-Thriller in Three Acts
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Latest Issues

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Monica Sefton has worked out the perfect murder, and once she finishes her crime play she is certain to be famous. But she doesn't count on her manuscript mysteriously disappearing, or on the sudden appearance of a stray black cat. These omens mark the beginning of events Monica never imagined—a real murder case where she is the key suspect.


Characters

BILL SEFTON A journalist

MONICA his wife (also a writer)

MRS. IDAMAE LAMPREY their landlady

DR. GILBERT NORTON a neighbour

SYLVIA MEADE (hat and gloves)

ANDREW MEADE (thin, untidy man in his mid-thirties, fellow journalist to BILL)

DETECTIVE DENNIS MARSH

CONSTABLE POGSON

CHIEF INSPECTOR WILLIAM BURKE (fifties, formal)

CORPSE (non-acting)

CAT (soft toy)

Exhibitions

Adaptations

y separately published work icon Lady in Danger Alexander Kirkland , 1945 New York (City) : Samuel French , 1946 8045462 1945 single work drama humour thriller

A radically altered version of Max Afford's play, designed for American audiences. In this version, 'A Japanese-born mystery novelist is suspected of the murder of a Japanese sympathizer and his chauffeur in Australia during World War II' (Playbill Vault).

According to contemporary newspapers:

Instead of the villain of the piece being a Nazi (as those who saw the play at the Independent will remember him) he is to be a Japanese spy operating in Australia, and the final rescue of the heroine in the New York version is to be carried out by American marines. Mention of General Macarthur is made in the script.

In cables to Mr. Afford, Mr. Kirkland explained that the changes were desirable because in America it is believed that the Nazis would soon be out of the war, and that, in any case, there was a great American interest in Australia and a play about this country would be a novelty in the United States.

Source:

'Australian Play for New York', Sydney Morning Herald, 11 December 1943, p.4.

form y separately published work icon Lady in Danger Sydney : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1959 8045303 1959 single work film/TV humour thriller

A woman whose husband has been made redundant 'unwittingly plays into the hands of subversive agents when she sets out to augment the depleted family finances'.

Source:

'Madi Hedd Impresses in Lady in Danger on TV', The Age, 8 October 1959, p.14.

Notes

  • Sound recording available.
  • Alexander Kirkland's version of the play for Broadway introduced radical alterations to the plot and the setting: see separate entry.

Production Details

  • First produced by the Independent Theatre, Sydney, 28 February 1942 and then at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, 1944.

    The collaborative version, with actor Alexander Kirkland, produced at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway, New York, 29, Mar.1945 - 7 Apr, 1945. Producers Pat Allen and Dan Fisher.

Works about this Work

Ten Old Australian Plays Worthy of Another Look Stephen Vagg , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: FilmInk , 6 March 2023;
Introduction : Max Afford, Playwright Leslie Rees , 1974 single work biography
— Appears in: Mischief in the Air : Radio and Stage Plays 1974;
Recent Australian Drama in Print Allan Ashbolt , 1946 single work criticism
— Appears in: Focus , December-January vol. 1 no. 11 1946-1947; (p. 31-33)
Society [The Bulletin, 11 April 1945] Hamfat , 1945 single work column
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 11 April vol. 66 no. 3400 1945; (p. 10)
Recent Australian Drama in Print Allan Ashbolt , 1946 single work criticism
— Appears in: Focus , December-January vol. 1 no. 11 1946-1947; (p. 31-33)
Society [The Bulletin, 11 April 1945] Hamfat , 1945 single work column
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 11 April vol. 66 no. 3400 1945; (p. 10)
Introduction : Max Afford, Playwright Leslie Rees , 1974 single work biography
— Appears in: Mischief in the Air : Radio and Stage Plays 1974;
Ten Old Australian Plays Worthy of Another Look Stephen Vagg , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: FilmInk , 6 March 2023;
Last amended 14 Feb 2018 11:06:52
Subjects:
  • c
    England,
    c
    c
    United Kingdom (UK),
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
Settings:
  • Hampstead, London,
    c
    England,
    c
    c
    United Kingdom (UK),
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • London,
    c
    England,
    c
    c
    United Kingdom (UK),
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • 1940s
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X