Comets Soon Pass

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Comets Soon Pass
Written by Dymphna Cusack
Date premiered8 October 1943
Place premieredRepertory Theatre, Perth
Original languageEnglish
SettingThe house of Dr John Smith

Comets Soon Pass is a 1943 Australian play by Dymphna Cusack. It won the 1943 WA Drama Festival Award. [1] (She had won it the year before with Morning Sacrifice. [2] ) The play was produced in Perth and in army camps. [3] Leslie Rees called the play a "political-disquisitory". [4]

Contents

According to Cusack's biography the play "was her personal catharsis and artistic reprisal for the defection of her former lover, the novelist Xavier Herbert, and payback to the 'asparagus king' Gordon Edgell, who had tried to damn her publicly for her activism on behalf of unemployed youth." [5]

The play was published in a 1950 collection of Cusack's plays. [6] [7]

Premise

A group gather in the house of a doctor during a flood. They include a squatter's wife, an artist and his wife (who is the ex-wife of the doctor), a trade union organiser and a young person.

Reception

Reviewing the debut production the West Australian wrote "There was some good dialogue and tense moments, marred somewhat by the lack of familiarity with lines. [8]

Reviewing the published play the Adelaide News wrote it had "a Galsworthian theme, has characters - hard-hearted capitalist, union organiser, wronged girl, philandering artist, and a woman again meeting her first husband - talking with unnatural glibness in an obviously contrived situation." [9] The Advertiser called it an "energetic attempt" but "the characters stilted, the settings unoriginal." [10]

References

  1. ↑ ""COMETS SOON PASS"". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate . No. 20, 964. New South Wales, Australia. 15 December 1943. p. 4. Retrieved 13 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "DYMPHNA CUSACK WINS DRAMA FESTIVAL AGAIN". The Newcastle Sun . No. 7994. New South Wales, Australia. 4 August 1943. p. 2. Retrieved 13 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ "Books In Brief". The West Australian . Vol. 66, no. 20, 056. Western Australia. 28 October 1950. p. 20. Retrieved 13 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ Rees, Leslie (1987). Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey. Angus & Robertson. p. 208. ISBN   978-0-207-15354-9.
  5. ↑ Marilla North, 'Cusack, Ellen Dymphna (Nell) (1902–1981)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cusack-ellen-dymphna-nell-12385/text22259, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 13 March 2024.
  6. ↑ "BOOK REVIEWS". News. Vol. 55, no. 8, 470. South Australia. 29 September 1950. p. 12. Retrieved 13 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "Plays Show Progress In Planning". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . Vol. 93, no. 28, 715. South Australia. 21 October 1950. p. 6. Retrieved 13 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ ""COMETS SOON PASS."". The West Australian . Vol. 59, no. 17, 863. Western Australia. 9 October 1943. p. 4. Retrieved 13 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "BOOK REVIEWS". News. Vol. 55, no. 8, 470. South Australia. 29 September 1950. p. 12. Retrieved 10 September 2025– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Plays Show Progress In Planning". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . Vol. 93, no. 28, 715. South Australia. 21 October 1950. p. 6. Retrieved 10 September 2025– via National Library of Australia.
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