A Phoenix Too Frequent (film)

Last updated
A Phoenix Too Frequent
Based on A Phoenix Too Frequent by Christopher Fry
Directed by Paul O'Loughlin
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time60 mins [1]
Production companyABC
Original release
Network ABC
Release24 July 1957 (1957-07-24) (Sydney, live) [2]
Release11 September 1957 (1957-09-11) (Melbourne) [3]

A Phoenix Too Frequent is a 1957 Australian TV play. It was made by the ABC at a time when Australian drama production was rare. [4] Christopher Fry's play only featured a cast of three so was considered ideal for television production; the ABC filmed it again in 1966. [5]

Contents

Premise

A grieving widow in Ancient Greece gradually finds the attractions of a young soldier outweighs her determination to join her husband in the underworld.

Cast

Production

Thelma Afford did the costumes. [6]

Rehearsal took place at a studio in Darlinghurst. It was the fourth TV production from Paul O'Louglin who used techniques taught him by Rudi Bretz when Bretz visited Australia the previous year. [5]

O'Loughlin said "TV has a lot of problems that don't exist either on the stage or in radio. You have to make every point valid in front of the camera and remember that it goes right into the homes of the audience. There’s none of the large illusion of the theatre. And you have to remember all the time that you’re working on a very small stage. You can’t go in for many long shots of crowd scenes, for instance, because the figures look too small to come to life. But you can create wonderfully intimate effects with close-ups in a way that is never possible on the stage. As in radio, you speak right into the ear of the audience; the whole thing is personal and intimate. That distinguishes it from the cinema." [5]

Audrey Teesdale and Dinah Shearing had acted in a production of the play on stage several years previously at the Mercury Theatre. It was Teesdale's fourth television play. [5]

The production took six weeks to plan and prepare. There was more than 40 hours of rehearsal, 30 hours in a workshop in Darlinghurst, two hours of dress and make up rehearsal at Gore Hill and seven and a half hoses of camera rehearsal. There was also a performance check lasting an hour before the telecast. During that time Desmonde Dowling designed scenery which was built in the workshop and costumes were designed. [5]

1966 version

A Phoenix Too Frequent
Based on A Phoenix Too Frequent by Christopher Fry
Directed by Oscar Whitbread
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time50 mins
Production companyABC
Original release
Network ABC
Release6 July 1966 (1966-07-06) (Melbourne) [7]
Release13 July 1966 (1966-07-13) (Sydney) [8] [9]

There was another Australian version done in Melbourne in 1966, directed by Oscar Whitbread). It aired as part of Wednesday Theatre . [10]

Cast

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References

  1. ↑ "Wednesday Television". The Age. 5 September 1957. p. 16.
  2. ↑ "Television News". Sydney Morning Herald. July 17, 1957. p. 7.
  3. ↑ ""Live" Comedy, Film" . The Age. 5 September 1957. p. 23.
  4. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (February 18, 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "The PRIVATE EYE of TV". ABC Weekly. 20 July 1957. pp. 4–5.
  6. ↑ "RED IS DANGEROUS...EVEN ON TV". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 25, no. 13. Australia. 4 September 1957. p. 10. Retrieved 31 October 2020– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "TV Guide". The age. 6 July 1966. p. 14.
  8. ↑ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 11 July 1966. p. 12.
  9. ↑ "TELEVISION". The Canberra Times . Vol. 40, no. 11, 519. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 13 July 1966. p. 21. Retrieved 31 October 2020– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Featured Fun". The Age. 30 June 1966. p. 9.
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