Defiance: Political Theatre in Brisbane (1930-1962)

by Connie HEALY

Brisbane: Boombana Publications, 2000
(256 pages, 218 x 155 mm, PB, ill., ISBN 1876542047)

They were young and serious about changing the world. They believed in popular culture. They loved theatre. They stood in support of workers' struggles, denounced the rise of fascism and all forms of social injustice. They were the "New Theatres" of Australia.

Spurred by the onset of the Depression, they brought social relevance and technical creativity to the live stage threatened with obsolescence. Between 1930 and 1962, despite all the handicaps due to their amateur status and their aggressive political stance, despite censorship and intimidation, and despite being all but ignored by conservative critics, the New Theatres were the most vital sector of theatrical activity.

Connie Healy has revived in the nick of time a significant piece of the New Theatre movement history. After tracing both the rebellious streak which runs through Australian culture and the rise of the modern political theatre worldwide, her book presents in detail the dedicated work of Brisbane's New Theatre groups. She introduces the actors, stage managers, artists involved. The social and political circumstances of the performances are explained. Synopses or thematic characterisation of the plays produced are given, as well as useful indication of the fortune of these plays on the general Australian or world scene.

The reactions of the audiences have been presented when it has been possible to retrieve documents (some were lost in the 1974 flood). Persons who had been active in the theatres were interviewed and large extracts of their recollections are included. The presentation combines historical and thematic approaches (e.g. "Workers' solidarity", "The Cold War", "Feminist issues", "Aboriginal rights"...).

The book is prefaced by Katharine Brisbane, one of Australia's leading historians of the theatre, author of several books on the subject.

This is a highly readable book, abundantly illustrated and full of precious facts and anecdotes. A "must read" not only for students and researchers of our theatrical history but also for all those who take pride in our democratic traditions.

Connie Healy was herself a member of Unity/New Theatre. She is the wife of the late famous trade-unionist Mick Healy.

"It is a surprise and a rare pleasure to discover an author who, through sheer love of the task, has retrieved for us a significant piece of our cultural history. Connie Healy is such an author: she has recuperated in the nick of time, before it is lost to living memory, a corner of our history which suffered the double jeopardy of having been, in its time, discriminated against by the guardians of the public record and in the years that followed overlooked by historians...

"The theatre, more than any literary form, encapsulates the feelings, prejudices, habits and ambitions of a social group at a point in our history; and these documents ... give us a privileged insight into the soul of ordinary Australians. ... we must thank Connie Healy ... not only for her dedicated scholarship but for the fact that [this book] is informed by her own life experience."

Katharine Brisbane AM, Hon. DLitt UNSW (from the Foreword)

 TO SEE THE FULL TEXT OF THIS FOREWORD click here
"Healy's book tells strongly and clearly the story of one of the most extraordinary of the groups that flourished in the years 1930-1962: from the great depression to the coming of television. The Brisbane Unity Theatre (later New Theatre), like similar left-wing theatre groups in other Australian cities and in Britain, Europe, and the United States, chose to stage the politically radical and intellectually serious theatre of their own times.

"Defiance is therefore an attempt to write a history that has not merely been forgotten but which was actively suppressed in its own time. In the 1950s New Theatre productions throughout Australia were banned, shunned by the major newspapers, and ignored by those who later on wrote the histories of Australian theatre and determined what its classic repertoire would be.

"Boombana Publications have done an excellent job of presenting Connie Healy's study ... using 'breakout' windows on many pages with photographs and short biographical accounts of the major actors, writers and directors, and sometimes notes on personal tragedies and great days in their lives ..."

Dr Richard Fotheringham, University of Queensland

 TO SEE THE FULL TEXT OF THIS REVIEW click here

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Last updated 25/2/07