Curly on the Rack

Curly on the Rack is a 1958 Australian play by Ru Pullan set in Rabaul after World War II.

Curly on the Rack
Written byRu Pullan
Directed byNigel Lovell
Date premiered3 September 1958
Place premieredElizabethan Theatre Trust, Newtown, Sydney
Original languageEnglish
SubjectWorld War Two, money, New Guinea
Genredrama
SettingPapua New Guinea

Pullan was an experienced radio writer. The play came about from a discussion Pullan had with a friend about treasure left behind in the war.[1]

It was presented by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust at a time when production of Australian plays was rare.[2]

It was considered a disappointment after their successful productions of The Shifting Heart and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.[3]

Plot

After World War Two, two brothers, the tough Max and the gentler Harry, live in Rabaul with their sister Pet, salvaging war time equipment. Their truck driver, Curly, waits for his opportunity to recover £10,000 he planted on a nearby island during the Japanese invasion along with a fellow soldier called Scobie.

Scobie arrives, having lost both his legs during the war, demanding his half of the money. Smith, a philosophical drunk, comments on the action.

Cast of original production
  • Stewart Ginn as Scobie
  • John Gray as Smith
  • Coralie Neville as Pet Finton
  • Max Osbiston as Harry
  • Grant Taylor as Max Finton
  • Ken Wayne as Harry Finton
  • Owen Weingott as Tim, a ship's captain

Reception
Ad in SMH 23 Aug 1958

Reviewing the original production, The Bulletin said "the dramatic cliches and tortuous contrivings that go with resolving the situations are rather less thanbearable, and the scene wherein Scobie recovers his manhood and Max reveals his yellow streak must be one of the most preposterous bits of hoo-ha served to an audience for many a day."[4]

The Sydney Morning Herald said the play "ran a wayward course through melodramatic shallows" and "had an entertaining enough adventure yarn to tell, but Mr Pullan seemed unable to develop the issues of his intriguing first act in a rich way through the stationary second, and then abandoned adventure to turn his third act into a much too rapid_, much too tritely tremulous, much too improbable study of a wrecked man's redemption into full and confident manhood." The paper's reviewer added that the "dialogue had the surface fluency to be expected of an experienced hand in day-to-dsy radio writing, but the play...had something of radio's way of forcing over-heated dramatics into situations that could seem more plausible if allowed to generate more stealthily."[5]

The Age said the play was "undistinguished" with "some of the most predictable action ever seen on stage".[6] The same critic later elaborated that the problem was not that the play fails to be distnguished but that "it fails to be an ordinary play."[7]

Leslie Rees later caled it "sloppily written, novelettish and second-rate. It played to empty houses and quickly lost over £5000 for the Trust. Such a failure illustrated how easily managements that are supposed to be highly skilled in evaluating plays can make woeful mistakes."[8]

According to the Trust Annual Report, the production lost the Trust £5,621.[9]

Radio adaptation

The play was adapted for Australian radio in 1960.[10] Pullan adapted the play himself and the roles were played by John Ewart (Curly), Stewart Ginn (Scobie) and John Gray (Smith).[11]

References
  1. "Talkabout". ABC Weekly. 21 May 1958. p. 47.
  2. "Rush for show she won't see". The Australian Women's Weekly. 9 July 1958. p. 31. Retrieved 24 May 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. "'The Doll' on tour a modern miracle". Sydney Morning Herald. October 7, 1958. p. 2.
  4. "Sundry shows talkies theatre music art". The Bulletin. 10 September 1958. p. 24.
  5. "Rabaul Setting for New Play". Sydney Morning Herald. 4 September 1958. p. 5.
  6. Grant, Bruce (4 September 1958). "New Australian Play in Sydney Undistinguished". The Age. p. 2.
  7. Grant, Bruce (13 September 1958). "Curly on the Rack: Assessing Our Latest Australian Play". The Age. p. 19.
  8. Rees, Leslie (1987). Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey. Angus and Robertson. p. 291.
  9. "Elizabethan Theatre Trust 1959 Annual Report" (PDF). Elizabethan Theatre Trust. p. 10.
  10. "Radio Programs". Sydney Morning Herald. October 27, 1960. p. 20.
  11. "Radio presents Curly on the Rack". The Age TV Supplement. 20 October 1960. p. 2.
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