Rusty Bugles

Rusty Bugles was a controversial Australian play written by Sumner Locke Elliott in 1948. It toured extensively throughout Australia between 1948–1949 and was threatened with closure by the New South Wales Chief Secretary's Office for obscenity.

Rusty Bugles
Written bySumner Locke Elliott
Date premiered1948
Original languageEnglish
SettingNorthern Territory during World War II

Production history

It was first produced by Doris Fitton and Sydney's Independent Theatre company on 14 October 1948, and advertised as an "army comedy documentary".[1] The announcement of its ban was made by J. M. Baddeley, Chief Secretary and acting Premier of New South Wales, on 22 October[2] but after initially defying the ban, Doris Fitton avoided a forced closure by commissioning a rewrite from the author.[3]

The Independent Theatre took the play, after an unprecedented 20-week run in New South Wales, to reopen The King's Theatre, Melbourne.[4] Meanwhile, another company was playing "Rusty Bugles" at Killara, New South Wales, so it was the first Australian play to run simultaneously in two states.[5] The words that were the subject of the ban gradually reappeared; no legal action was ever taken, though rewrites were demanded in different states.[6]

At the end of its record six-month run in Melbourne, the production transferred to Adelaide, then returned to Sydney at The Tatler. But now critics were writing that it was being played for laughs, with the swearing self-conscious rather than part of the patois.[7]

The publisher of the play, Currency Press, quotes Elliott as saying that Rusty Bugles was 'a documentary... Not strictly a play... it has no plot in the accepted sense'. Elliott did not foresee that shortly after this, the genre of the theatre of the absurd would be established as a 'legitimate' dramatic form where plot and the delineation of character are less important than the insight offered into the implicit drama of most human interactions.[8]

Cast (1948)
  • Des Nolan ("Gig") – John Kingsmill
  • Vic Richards – Ivor Bromley-Smith
  • Sergeant Brooks – Sidney Chambers
  • Rod Carsen – Ronald Frazer
  • Andy Edwards ("The Little Corporal") – Robert Crome
  • Otford ("Ot") – Alistair Roberts
  • Mac – Frank O'Donnell
  • Ollie – John Unicomb
  • Chris – Kevin Healy
  • "Darky" McClure – Lloyd Berrell
  • "Keghead" Stephens – Ralph Peterson
  • Corporal – doubled
  • Ken Falcon ("Dean Maitland") – Michael Barnes
  • First Private – Jack Wilkinson
  • Second Private – James Lyons
  • Bill Hendry (YMCA Sergeant) – Frank Curtain
  • Private – Peter Hartland
  • Jack Turner (Sigs Corporal) – doubled
  • Sigs Private – doubled
  • Sammy Kuhn – Kenneth Colbert

Adaptations

The play was adapted for TV by the ABC in 1965 and then later in 1981.[9] Both versions were directed by Alan Burke who had directed the stage play in 1949.[10]

The play was also adapted by the ABC for radio in 1965.[11]

1981 film

Sumner Locke Elliot announced in the late 1970s he wanted the play to be filmed.[12]

The ABC filmed it in 1981. It was the second last in a series of play adaptations on the ABC. By this stage the play was established as a modern classic – it had been published by Currency Press in 1980 – and the Herald called it "a wry, rich and intensely Australian comedy peopled by Australian soldiers who chafe at the boredom of life in an out of the way camp while their mates are off fighting a real war."[13]

Alan Burke was again associated with the production as producer, although John Matthews was the director.

Cast

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "one of the more enjoyable programs" of the week, in which the performances "could not be bettered... enjoyed it immensely."[14]

The Age called it "heady stuff for expatriate Australians and those who have an ear for local slang... the letdowns and character development are predictable, if well done and amusing. What I enjoyed was the throwaway lines."[15]

The critic from the Woman's Weekly complained about the "quaint, old-fashioned dialogue" and "some quaint, old-fashioned direction" in which "the viewer was never certain he was watching a photographed stage play or a badly re-enacted documentary... A study of boredom, became studiously boring."[16]

The Canberra Times called the 1981 production "the sort of entertainment that makes satire redundant."[17]

Another writer for the Age thought the ABC had "revived Rusty Bugles without bothering to work out what it was about" and complained about the historical accuracy of the uniforms.[18]

See also

References
  1. "Australian Play is Fine Theatre". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 October 1948. Retrieved 27 July 2016 – via Trove.
  2. "State Bans Play "Rusty Bucles"". Sydney Morning Herald. 23 October 1948. p. 4. Retrieved 27 July 2016 – via Trove.
  3. ""Rusty Bugles" Sound New Lily-white Tune". Sydney Morning Herald. 29 October 1948. p. 1. Retrieved 27 July 2016 – via Trove.
  4. "Opening the Season". The Argus. Melbourne. 16 April 1949. Retrieved 27 July 2016 – via Trove.
  5. "Rusty Bugles ran in two cities". Sunday Herald. Sydney. 24 April 1949. Retrieved 27 July 2016 – via Trove.
  6. "Candid Comment". Sunday Herald. Sydney. 15 May 1949. p. 2. Retrieved 27 July 2016 – via Trove.
  7. "Rusty Bugles sound a false note". Sydney Morning Herald. 10 April 1950. p. 4. Retrieved 27 July 2016 – via Trove.
  8. "Introducing the Play". Sumner Locke Elliot's Rusty Bugles. Currency press. Archived from the original on 1 September 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  9. Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970–1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p135
  10. "AusStage".
  11. "Rusty Bugles on radio". The Canberra Times. 27 April 1965. p. 15. Retrieved 25 July 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. "'Bugles' author will help with the movie". The Australian Women's Weekly. 11 January 1978. p. 7. Retrieved 25 July 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. "First played, Bugles roused storm in a teacup". Sydney Morning Herald. 1 November 1981. p. 57.
  14. "As Australian as Violet Crumbles". Sydney Morning Herald. 2 November 1981. p. 17.
  15. Ellingsen, Peter (4 November 1981). "In view". The Age. p. 2.
  16. "Culled Cut!". The Australian Women's Weekly. 2 December 1981. p. 177. Retrieved 25 July 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. "TELEVISION By IAN WARDEN Barbarians through a Pythonesque eye". The Canberra Times. 12 November 1981. p. 22. Retrieved 25 July 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. Tanner, Saturday (7 November 1981). "Speaking as a Sober Judge". The Age. p. 15.

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