The Chinese Wall (TV play)

The Chinese Wall is a 1963 Australian television play.[1]

It was the television world premiere of a farce by contemporary Swiss playwright Max Frisch.[2] It was adapted by Richard Lane. It aired in Melbourne on April 17 1963 and in Sydney on 15 May and ran for 75 minutes.[3]

Plot

A modern character, The Contemporary, invites the audience to watch. He then becomes involved in the play's action.

In the second century BC the Emperor Hwang Ti is building the Great Wall of China "to hold up time and prevent all future."[2] Historical characters from other ages meet him in his royal garden in order to tell him what they know of what is happening. Characters include Don Juan, Romeo and Juliet, Napoleon, Christopher Columbus, Brutus and Cleopatra.

Cast
  • Edward Brayshaw as The Contemporary[4]
  • Joan Letch as Olson
  • Carole Potter as the governor's daughter, Princess Mee Lan
  • Edward Howell as the Emperor of China
  • David Mitchell
  • Sydney Conabere

Production

According to one report, "The play's message is that mankind now has the means of destroying itself and must cope with this situation. Playwright Frisch chose the Chinese Wall as an allegorical basic for his play because it is one of the world's oldest constructions still standing in more or less its original state."[2]

The play was experimental.[5]

Reception

The Age gave it a poor review.[6]

gollark: https://osmarks.tk/nemc/
gollark: It could be good at teaching "computational thinking" skills, except it doesn't really work much like sane programming languages and it's never taught that way.
gollark: Scratch is indeed very uncool.
gollark: That makes less sense.
gollark: I... don't think that's a thing.

References
  1. "Untitled". The Age. 11 April 1963. p. 13.
  2. "World Premiere Of New Farce". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 May 1963. p. 33. Retrieved 3 May 2020 – via Trove.
  3. "TELEVISION AND RADIO". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 May 1963. p. 33. Retrieved 3 May 2020 – via Trove.
  4. "No title". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 May 1963. p. 33. Retrieved 3 May 2020 – via Trove.
  5. "Play Which Will Involve Viewers". The Age. 11 April 1963. p. 13.
  6. "Teletopics". The Age. April 25, 1963. p. 10.
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