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Assaying the New Drama single work   review  
Issue Details: First known date: 1973... 1973 Assaying the New Drama
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A. A. Phillips introduces his review of six new Australian dramas by saying: 'The quality of these plays, and others in the present burgeoning, is perhaps not the most important consideration. It matters much more that they are here and that they are satisfying audiences. Culturally in the widest sense of the word, the theatre's first importance is not as a potent vehicle of art, but as the place where a crosssection of the community has a common, and preferably a significant, experience. But so long as our theatre presented almost entirely imported material it forfeited half its power to develop our social coherence. Moreover, it fed our tendency to drowse into acceptance of a client-state mentality. It therefore matters a good deal that a sizeable slice of our common entertainment is now being presented by our own entertainers concerned with our own forms of living and igniting an eagerness of response. If their plays are also good art or penetrating social comment, so very much the better; but that is not their primary social function.' (Meanjin 32.2 (June 1973):189)

Notes

  • Review essay.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 29 Jan 2015 10:58:02
189-195 Assaying the New Dramasmall AustLit logo Meanjin Quarterly
182-189 Assaying the New Dramasmall AustLit logo
217-224 Assaying the New Dramasmall AustLit logo
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