Burst of Summer

Burst of Summer is a 1959 play by Oriel Gray. It won the 1959 J.C. Williamson's Little Theatre Guild Award, and was later adapted for radio and TV. It was Gray's last produced play.[1]

Burst of Summer
Written byOriel Gray
Date premiered2 Feb 1960
Place premieredLittle Theatre, South Yarra, Melbourne
Original languageEnglish
SubjectRace relations

Plot

In 1955, racial tensions erupt in a small town after a young Aboriginal girl Peggy gains brief notability as a film actress. White townsfolk decide to build houses and move the Aboriginal residents of "The Flats" into them.

Background

Burst of Summer was written by Gray in 1959. The story is based on the story of Ngarla Kunoth, who was cast in the lead of Charles Chauvel's film Jedda and was inspired by Gray's experiences living in Lismore in the 1940s.[2] It won £500 in the Little Theatre Competition. The prize included a try out at the Melburne Little Theatre.[3]

Original production

The play was first produced in 1960 at the Little Theatre in Melbourne. The cast included Morris Brown, Max Bruch and Marcella Burgoyne.[4][5]

The Bulletin said the production "received the usual treatment accorded Australian art. No mention from TV, or commercial radio, a review from the A.8.C., and the usual back-page notice in the dailies."[6]

Reviewing the production, the theatre critic from The Bulletin said "it is a thousand pities that she [Grey chose such stereotyped characters and situations as vehicles for her often stimulating thoughts on the problem of racial intolerance. Despite the rather fashionable seriousness of its theme, the play is probably more notable for its absence of dull moments, its perky good humor and wit and the author’s efficient handling of dialogue."[7]

The play was submitted for production by the Melbourne Theatre Company but they rejected it.[8]

1960 radio adaptation

The play was performed on ABC Radio National in Sydney in 1960.[9]

1961 TV adaptation
Burst of Summer
Advertisement from The Age, 9 Aug 1961
Based onplay by Oriel Gray
Written byOriel Gray
Rex Rienits
Directed byWilliam Sterling
Country of originAustralia
Original language(s)English
Production
Running time54 mins
Production company(s)ABC
DistributorABN-2
Release
Original networkABC
Original release9 August 1961 (Melbourne)[10]
4 October 1961 (Sydney)[11]
19 December 1961 (Perth)[12]

The play was adapted for television in 1961 and broadcast by ABC TV.[13]

Plot

Peggy returns home, where she used to work at a milk bar run by Joe, who employs an aboriginal man, Eddie. Peggy is loved by both an aboriginal law clerk, Don, and a white journalist, Clinton. A white man, Merv, is unhappy at the idea of aboriginals moving into town. He is encouraged to cause trouble by Sally Blake. It results in Merv cutting Eddie's eyes. Merv is arrested and Peggy leaves town with Clinton.

Cast

Production

Filming took place at the ABC's Melbourne Studios in South Bank.[14] Robert Tudawali was flown from Darwin to make his first appearance in a live television drama. (He had already been seen in episodes of the filmed series Whiplash.)[15] He was one of three aboriginal actors in the production, the others being jazz singer Georgia Lee and rock singer Candy Williams. This was in contrast to the radio version of Burst of Summer which had been performed with an all-white cast. Gray said "I want to write about a sophisticated aborigine - the kind of person that aboriginies must look to in the future."[10]

Williams and Tudawali were both paid £160 each. However, because Tudawali was a ward of the Northern Territor government he was only allowed to keep part of his fee.[16]

Reception

The TV critic from the Sunday Sydney Morning Herald called the production a "half-hearted stab" at writing a story on the problems of the aboriginal in a white society, despite some good acting from Georgia Lee and Edward Howell. She added, "One couldn't escape the feeling that the author had dashed it off after seeing too many American movies, rather than making a serious attempt to put the Australian colour problem into its own perspective. It's a pity this missed out, because there is a goldmine of material on the aboriginal waiting for a skilled, sensitive writer to tap it."[15]

Another critic from the daily Sydney Morning Herald said the show "argued an imepccable principle clumsily" which had "unreal or stereotyped characters and dialogue that was sometimes more stagey than convincingly laconic."[17]

The Bulletin called it "a depressingly incompetent technical exercise, and the characterisation was appalling."[18]

Awards
  • 1959 J.C. Williamson's Little Theatre Guild Award.
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See also
  • List of television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1960s)

References
  1. Merilee p 107-110
  2. Oriel Gray obituary at Sydney Morning Herald
  3. "Women's letters MELBOURNE". The Bulletin. 21 October 1959. p. 56.
  4. 1960 stage production at Ausstage
  5. "Women's Letters MELBOURNE". The Bulletin. 2 March 1960. p. 56.
  6. "PLAIN ENGLISH From Jerquers to Deputies". The Bulletin. 2 March 1960. p. 7.
  7. "Prize-winning Play". The Bulletin. 9 March 1960. p. 23.
  8. Merilee p 118-119
  9. 1960 radio version at Ausstage
  10. "Backyard Apartheid exposed in Australia". The Age. 3 August 1961. p. 12.
  11. "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 2 October 1961. p. 18.
  12. Burst of Summer at Classic TV Guides}
  13. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  14. 1961 TV play at Ausstage
  15. Marshall, Valda (8 October 1961). "TV Merry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 84.
  16. "COLOUR BAR ON TV PAY". Tribune (1218). New South Wales, Australia. 30 August 1961. p. 7. Retrieved 17 July 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. "TV Play by Oriel Gray". Sydney Morning Herald. 5 October 1961. p. 9.
  18. Harris, Max (28 October 1961). "REVIEWS TV A New Cultural Deal?". The Bulletin. p. 33.

Notes
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