Fountains Beyond

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Fountains Beyond
Written by George Landen Dann
Characters7
Date premieredJanuary 28, 1942 (1942-01-28)
Place premieredNew Theatre, Sydney [1]
Original languageEnglish
SubjectAboriginals
Genredrama

Fountains Beyond is a 1942 Australian stage play by George Landen Dann. It is his best known work. [2]

Contents

It was a rare play at the time to address the issues of Aboriginal Australians. In 1942 Leslie Rees called it Dann's "best work so far." [3]

The play was adapted for radio in 1942, [4] 1954 [5] [6] and 1957. [7]

It was published in book form in 1944. [8]

The play was revived in 2000. [9]

Premise

English travel writer Miss Gertrude Harnett has arrives in the small Queensland town of Kooreelba. Mayoral candidate Mr Watson, organises an Aboriginal corroboree in her honour. All money raised is to go towards a new children’s playground to be built in the adjacent Aboriginal settlement. The development is part of the politician's plan to expand the town and further disposes the traditional land owners.

Vic Filmer, a spokesperson of the Aboriginal community, leads the battle against the development. In doing so he accidentally shoots his wife.

Reception

Reviewing the 1942 stage production Wireless Weekly said "Truly Australian in context, it [the play] has a strong emotional impact and handles an important problem with insight and sound dramatic form. Dialogue is concise and characterisation sure. " [10]

Reviewing the 1943 ABC radio version The Bulletin argued:

Had the abos. united and fought against the white, they would have made material for drama... But the situation of the abos. has always been exactly that defined by Matthew Arnold as impossible for art: merely “pitiable,” without the heroic conflict, physical or mental, that makes the stuff of tragedy. Dann might have been able to make a personal tragedy— the failure of ambition —out of his half-caste who strives for the betterment of the abos.; but the emphasis, instead of being personal, was on the general reaction of the abos. to their being uprooted from a cherished camp ; there was no general struggle, only pathos and pity, and so nothing to lift the play from pro-paganda to tragedy. [11]

Cast of 1954 Radio Production

Cast of 1957 Radio Production

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References

  1. ↑ "The Little Theatres", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Sydney: Wireless Press, 37 (6), February 7, 1942, nla.obj-725915854, retrieved 24 July 2023– via Trove
  2. ↑ Richard Fotheringham, 'Dann, George Landen (1904–1977)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dann-george-landen-9900/text17527, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 24 July 2023.
  3. ↑ "Plays at the Air Same Light on Dark Australians", ABC Weekly, Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Commission, 4 (36), 5 September 1942, retrieved 24 July 2023– via Trove
  4. ↑ "ABC Coming Features". Nambour Chronicle And North Coast Advertiser . No. 1995. Queensland, Australia. 4 September 1942. p. 4. Retrieved 24 July 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "Around the Dial". The Daily Telegraph . Vol. XIX, no. 38. New South Wales, Australia. 5 May 1954. p. 8. Retrieved 22 November 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "RADIO PLAYS for NEXT WEEK A.B.C.", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC, 1 May 1954, retrieved 3 February 2024– via Trove
  7. ↑ "A.B.C. Radio plays for next week", ABC Weekly, Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Commission, 19 (28), 13 July 1957, retrieved 24 July 2023– via Trove
  8. ↑ "Book News Radio Propaganda of Nazis". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 33, 277. New South Wales, Australia. 19 August 1944. p. 6. Retrieved 24 July 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "Brisbane Festival: playing from the boundaries", Realtime, Rushcutters Bay, N.S.W.: Open City Inc (40), Dec 2000 – Jan 2001 [1994], ISSN   1321-4799, nla.obj-777349261, retrieved 24 July 2023– via Trove
  10. ↑ "THE LITTLE THEATRES", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Sydney: Wireless Press, February 7, 1942, retrieved 3 February 2024– via Trove
  11. ↑ "SUNDRY SHOWS.", The Bulletin, 10 February 1943, retrieved 3 February 2024– via Trove
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