AustLit
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'On the white frontier in mid-nineteenth century Australia, a lone, bloodied woman arrives at a traveller's rest in the midst of a violent desert storm with a shocking story to tell. Aborigines have allegedly murdered her husband and stolen her infant child. But an Aboriginal woman has a different story to tell. What would cause a missionary's wife to lie? What chance does the word of an Aboriginal woman have against hers? A chilling mystery that draws together the lives of four extraordinary women and their men, all struggling to survive in a hostile and misunderstood landscape. (1 act, 4 male, 4 female).' (Publication summary)
Production Details
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First produced at the TXU Playhouse Adelaide, 21 August 2001 by the State Theatre Company of South Australia. Directed by Rosalba Clemente
Performed at University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. The Little Theatre, University of Adelaide. October 5th-19th, 2013.
Also performed in Houston (20 May) and Austin (25 May),Texas : 2016
Cast (2001)
EPSTEIN Peter Docker
WAKEFIELD Frank Gallagher
CORNELIUS Cameron Goodall
GOUNDRY Dino Mamika
LINDA Rachael Maza
ELIZABETH Mandy McElhinney
OBEDIENCE Melodie Reynolds
NORA Kerry Walker
Creatives (2001)
Director, Rosalba Clemente
Designer, Cath Cantlon
Lighting Designer, Mark Shelton
Composer, Bernie Lynch
Assistant Director, Sam Haren
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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y
Contemporary Settler Literature : Resources for Students and Teachers
St Lucia
:
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
,
2017
13356230
2017
single work
multimedia
bibliography
'Here you will find an introduction to settler colonial theory and contemporary settler colonial literature. This exhibition is intended to survey the major and minor authors, works, and ideas involved with settler colonial writing in Australia, and, to a lesser extent, the United States, since the 1990s.
'In addition to the overview statements on this page, you can click on other tabs to see timeline of publication dates in historical context, a glossary of common terms, an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources, brief discussions of themes and motifs useful for student researchers and teachers interested in including settler colonialism in their curricula, and information about comparative settler colonial studies between Australia and the US.'
Source: Abstract.
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How Edgy Should High-School Theater Be?
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Houston Chronicle , 25 May 2016;
— Review of Holy Day 2001 single work drama'It has been a rough semester for my son. Blood stings his eyes, and it is hard to get the black stuff out of his teeth. But he endures the discomfort, the long rehearsals and being thrown about onstage because he knows he is telling an important story.
'Cyrus is in Carnegie Vanguard High School's production of Holy Day by Andrew Bovell, a theater piece set in the ruthless 19th-century Australian outback. The play is psychologically intense, an exploration of subjects such as violence, sex and race.'
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Australian Gothic Drama : Mapping a Nation's Trauma from Convicts to the Stolen Generation
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , June no. 66 2015; (p. 11-39) -
White Masculine Violence and Exploitation of Faith : Sexuality and the Violence of Colonisation in Holy Day
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Empowering and Disempowering Indigenes : Staging Australian Aboriginal Experience 2010; (p. 93-109) -
The History Wars and Holy Day (The Red Sea): Andrew Bovell's Dramatic Black Armband
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 20 no. 2 2006; (p. 150-154) Donal Pulford examines Andrew Bovell's Holy Day in the context of the so-called history wars.
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Bovell's Bleak Day of Reckoning Casts a Hard and Haunting Spell
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15 August 2003; (p. 12)
— Review of Holy Day 2001 single work drama -
Disquieting Production Opens Secret, Savage Past
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 15 August 2003; (p. 14)
— Review of Holy Day 2001 single work drama -
Thinking About Our Past and Future
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 20 September 2003; (p. 8)
— Review of Holy Day 2001 single work drama -
In the Shadow of the Lost and Stolen Children
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 23 September 2001; (p. 9)
— Review of Holy Day 2001 single work drama -
Contested Ground
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , September no. 216 2001; (p. 29)
— Review of Holy Day 2001 single work drama -
Bovell's Dramatic Reward, 10 Years in the Making
2002
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 12 November 2002; (p. 4) -
One Man's Unsettling View of the Australian Frontier
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 15 July 2003; (p. 9) -
'Fear the Bitch Who Sheds No Tears' : The Persistence of the Female Scapegoat in Cultural Representations of Frontier Violence and Stolen Generations
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Lilith , no. 12 2003; (p. 50-64) The Regenerative Spirit : Volume 2 : (Un)settling, (Dis)locations, (Post-)colonial, (Re)presentations - Australian Post-Colonial Reflections 2004; (p. 150-159) This 'article takes this powerful and resonant historical drama [Holy Day] as its focus in exploring the continuity of an Australian cultural depiction of womanhood in the representation of white women's role in colonialism' (p.50). -
Windshuttling the Right : Some Australian Literary and Historical Adaptations for the Stage
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 3 no. 2004; (p. 133-142) Focusing on the disjunction between versions of national history in white and black narratives of shared history, the article provides an overview of theatrical adaptations of cultural narratives that deal with Aboriginal experience in Australia's post-contact history. -
Black and White : Australia's History Onstage in Four Plays of the New Millennium
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 48 2006; (p. 203-227)
Awards
- 2002 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Drama
- 2002 winner AWGIE Awards — Stage Award
- 2002 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting
- Bush,
- ca. 1850s
