For Valour (play)

Last updated
For Valour
Written by Ric Throssell
Date premieredSeptember 1, 1960 (1960-09-01) [1]
Place premieredCanberra Repertory Company
Original languageEnglish

For Valour is a 1960 Australian stage play by Ric Throssell.

Contents

The play was based on the life of Throssell's father Hugo Throssell, who had won the Victoria Cross and later committed suicide. [2] [3]

The play debuted in Canberra in 1960 in a production sponsored by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. [4] Leslie Rees later wrote:

Such a play could hardly have hoped for wide use by theatres because of its remote scene and time, and down-beat moods of pessimism. But because of its alert, skilled dialogue, its sure sense of scene movement, its quick but accurate limning of characters (perhaps too many?) and even more so because of the degree of underlying compassion, For Valour must continue to earn the high respect of true students of Australian theatre—and life. [5]

Th play was published in 1976 by Currency Press. [6]

Premise

In a small Victorian country town, a war hero struggles to adjust to peace time. He winds up committing suicide.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugo Throssell</span> Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell, VC was an Australian soldier in the First World War who was the first Western Australian and only Australian light horseman to receive the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for valour in battle that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharine Susannah Prichard</span> Australian fiction writer and dramatist

Katharine Susannah Prichard was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia.

<i>Summer of the Seventeenth Doll</i> (1959 film) 1959 film by Leslie Norman

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a 1959 Australian-British film directed by Leslie Norman and is based on the Ray Lawler play Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. In the United States the film was released under the title Season of Passion.

Lady in Danger was a play by Australian writer Max Afford. It was one of the few Australian plays to enjoy a run on Broadway. It was also adapted for radio and television.

A Hard God is a semi-autobiographical play by Peter Kenna.

The Invisible Circus is a play by Sumner Locke Elliott set in the world of radio drama. A production by John Carlson ran for six weeks at the Independent Theatre, Sydney in 1946. and in Melbourne later that year by the Little Theatre produced by Irene Mitchell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ric Throssell</span> Australian writer and diplomat

Ric Throssell was an Australian diplomat and author whose writings included novels, plays, film and television scripts, and memoirs. For most of his professional life as a diplomat his career was dogged by unproven allegations that he either leaked classified information to his mother, the writer and communist Katharine Susannah Prichard, or was himself a spy for the Soviet Union.

<i>Blue Murder</i> (1959 film) 1959 Australian TV series or program

Blue Murder is an Australian live television play which aired in 1959 on ABC. Broadcast live in Sydney on 2 December 1959, a kinescope ("telerecording") was made of the broadcast so it could be shown in Melbourne.

<i>The Young Victoria</i> (1963 film) 1963 Australian TV series or program

The Young Victoria is an Australian television film of 1963 which aired on ABC on 27 March 1963. Based on the play Victoria Regina, it is a 60-minute drama about the courtship and marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert. It stars Lola Brooks as Victoria and Ric Hutton as Albert.

"The Sweet Sad Story of Elmo and Me" is a 1965 Australian television film which aired on ABC as part of Wednesday Theatre. It aired on 28 July 1965 in Melbourne and Sydney.

"The Tower" is a 1964 TV play broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It aired on 2 December 1964 as a stand-alone in Melbourne and on 28 April 1965 as part of Wednesday Theatre in Sydney. It aired on 6 January 1965 in Brisbane. It was based on a play by Hal Porter and directed by Christopher Muir in the ABC's studios in Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coralie Clarke Rees</span> Australian writer

Coralie Clarke, later Coralie Clarke Rees BA was a Western Australian author.

"A Ride on the Big Dipper" is a 1967 Australian television play. It screened as part of Wednesday Theatre and had a running time of one hour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">May Hollinworth</span> Australian theatrical producer and director

May Hollinworth was an Australian theatre producer and director, former radio actress, and founder of the Metropolitan Theatre in Sydney. The daughter of a theatrical producer, she was introduced to the theatre at a young age. She graduated with a science degree, and worked in the chemistry department of the University of Sydney, before being appointed as director of the Sydney University Dramatic Society, a post she held from 1929 until 1943

"Salome" is a 1968 Australian TV play starring Frank Thring. It was based on the 1891 play of the same name by Oscar Wilde and was reportedly the first time that play had been adapted for television.

Down Under is a 1975 Australian play by Bob Ellis and Anne Brooksbank.

The Day Before Tomorrow is a 1956 Australian play by Ric Throssell. It debuted at the Canberra Repertory Company in 1956 with Throssell appearing in a lead role. The Canberra Times called it "absorbing". The Bulletin called it "a very good play". Leslie Rees wrote "This nightmarish vision of what might challenge humanity at any moment was projected with grim directness and without relieving humour or even bitter wit. The world of the 1950s, daily warned of the bomb, readily absorbed the lesson."

Legend is a 1958 Australian play by Ric Throssell. Its original production was sponsored by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust.

Barbara is a 1966 Australian stage play by Mona Brand. The original production was sponsored by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. The Sydney Morning Herald called it "divertingly unpredictable."

Pirates at the Barn is a 1948 Australian stage play for children. It made its debut in 1948 and was very popular, being performed at the Minerva Theatre in 1949. The cast for that production included Grant Taylor and John Meillion.

References

  1. ↑ "Manners Of A Small-Town". The Canberra Times . Vol. 34, no. 9, 696. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 September 1960. p. 2. Retrieved 14 July 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ Clark, Andrew (30 April 1999). "Ric Throssell obituary". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 30.
  3. ↑ Suzanne Welborn, 'Throssell, Hugo Vivian Hope (1884–1933)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/throssell-hugo-vivian-hope-8806/text15445, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 14 July 2023.
  4. ↑ "What People Are Doing". The Canberra Times . Vol. 34, no. 9, 687. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 23 August 1960. p. 5. Retrieved 14 July 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ Rees, Leslie (1987). Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey. p. 376.
  6. ↑ "the drama of social growth". The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 November 1976. p. 13.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.